Synthesis of highly porous activated carbon derived from kernel oil treatment by-products of Argania Spinosa as a recyclable adsorbent for amoxicillin removal from real wastewater

The widespread occurrence of drugs in the aquatic environment has raised concerns over the last decades about the mechanisms to be used to remove these emerging contaminants because of their harmful effects on the water quality and human health. This current research was aimed to explore the preparation of an activated carbon from kernel oil treatment residues of Argania Spinosa for the removal of amoxicillin (AMX) from water. The conditions for synthesizing the activated carbon (AC-RS) were used: an impregnation weight ratio of char to KOH 1:1 at activation temperature of 800 °C for 1 h of activation time, which gave a BET surface area and total pore volume of 1618 m2 g−1 and 0.763 cm3 g−1, respectively. The effect of AMX/AC-RS interactions as well as the operating conditions (time, solution pH, initial concentration, and temperature) on the adsorption capacity was also studied. The adsorption of AMX onto AC-RS, with maximum adsorption capacity of 303.03 mg g−1, is much higher compared to several adsorbents reported in the literature. The high amount of AMX absorbed by AC-RS at pH 6 mainly results from the adsorption sites involved in the electrostatic attraction force, π-π hydrophobic interaction, and hydrogen bonding. The regeneration study ascertained the fact that AC-RS was reusable even after four consecutive cycles and the efficiency remains higher than 70%. Therefore, the optimized batch parameters were employed for the AMX removal in real wastewater, a percentage of 77.2% was obtained.