Modelling of Fixed Bed Adsorption of Ciprofloxacin on ZnCl2-Activated Carbon Derived from Typha australis Grass

Abstract

Fixed-bed adsorption has emerged as a widely employed industrial application in wastewater treatment processes. Various low-cost adsorbents have been stud- ied for their applicability in treating wastewater. In this study, the potential of ZnCl₂-activated carbon (TAAC) from Typha australis grass was investigated for ciprofloxacin (CIP) removal from synthetic wastewater in a fixed-bed adsorption column. The effect of flow rate (0.5 - 2.0 mL/min), bed height (5 - 10 cm), and initial drug concentration (25 - 100 mg/l) on the behavior of breakthrough curves was explained. Breakthrough time decreased with increasing flow rate and inlet CIP concentration but increased with increasing adsorbent bed height. Breakthrough curve analysis showed that CIP adsorption onto the TAAC material was most ef- fective at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, inlet CIP concentration of 25 mg/L, and at a bed height of 10 cm. The maximum adsorption capacity of TAAC and removal effi- ciency were found to be 8.2 mg/g and 59.3%, respectively. Four common fixed-bed models were fitted to the breakthrough curves, and the Yan model displayed the best fit to the experimental data (R2 > 0.98) across all conditions. These findings suggest that TAAC, a low-cost material, has the potential to be a promising adsor- bent for the sustainable removal of CIP from water. However, further testing with surface modifications and real wastewater samples containing competitive anions is necessary to validate the performance of TAAC for practical applications.