Elucidating sorptive eradication of ibuprofen using calcium chloride caged bentonite clay and acid activated alginate beads in a fixed bed upward flow column reactor

The sorptive eradication of ibuprofen (IBP), a pharmaceutical micro-pollutant, from aqueous medium in a fixed bed upward flow column reactor was examined using the adsorbent prepared from amalgamation of calcium chloride caged acid activated tamarind seed and bentonite alginate beads [Ca²⁺(TAABB)Al]. Surface texture and the presence of constituent elements in the contrived sorbent was characterised by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analysis at pre-sorption and post-sorption phases. Effect of controlling factors viz. bed height of the column (5–25 cm), influent concentration of IBP (10–25 mg/L), and amount of inflow (2–6 mL/min) on efficacious IBP uptake was evaluated. The column experimentation revealed that there would be a rise in height of the breakthrough curve while the column bed height increases. Along with 97.48% IBP elimination, the maximal adsorbent uptake has been determined to be 17.54 mg/g from an optimum height of column bed of 20 cm, concentration of influent ibuprofen 20 mg/L, and amount of inflow 2 mL/min. Efficiency of the sorbent was investigated using the bed depth service time (BDST) model, and it was observed that bed height of the column was the most important aspects in achieving effective IBP adsorption. The investigational results were well supported by the Yoon–Nelson as well as Thomas model. The desorption analysis demonstrated the performance of adsorbent up to 5 cycles for ibuprofen separation with a column regeneration rate of 38.14%. Hence, the novel sorbent Ca²⁺(TAABB)Al can be effectively used to eradicate IBP from aqueous phase.