TRASH TO TREASURE: HARNESSING THE POWER OF AGRICULTURAL WASTES FOR GENERATING CLEANER WATER

The increase in global population has resulted in the escalating demand in food production, contributing to vast amounts of different agricultural waste. Their accumulation and unsustainable disposal practices can lead to serious environmental challenges. Agricultural run-offs contribute greatly to surface water pollution, therefore, meeting global food demand while protecting water quality and the environment are the key global challenges. One of the groups of pollutants of concern in the run-offs are the residual antibiotics and their presence or persistence in the environment is posing significant threats to human life. The available efforts have not achieved significant removal of residual antibiotics in wastewater, especially when ligno-cellulosic agricultural wastes have been deployed as alternative low-cost material. Therefore, the study herein focuses on the use of mahogany, an agricultural waste, for the removal of antibiotics (e.g., rifampicin) from water. The release of rifampicin to aqueous media urgently requires an effective alternative water treatment process, as the priority pathogens such as mycobacterium tuberculosis are becoming resistant to this class of antibiotic. The sawdust was dried and ground to produce particles with sizes ranging from 38 to 850 before undergoing a treatment with 2 M sulphuric acid. The concentration of rifampicin in aqueous solutions was measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer operating at wavelength of 333 nm. The adsorption experiments were conducted using a solution of rifampicin with 20 µg/mL concentration. The adsorption of antibiotic on untreated and treated mahogany sawdust had lowered the concentration of rifampicin in water by 16% and 39%, respectively, within 20 minutes of its contact with the particles the adsorbent. The removal rate of rifampicin by treated sawdust was doubled, which can be attributed to impact of sulphuric acid during the treatment process. This recent study demonstrated that the waste material was effective for the adsorption of rifampicin from water.