Adsorbent Minimization for Removal of Ibuprofen from Water in a Two-Stage Batch Process

Pharmaceutical products in water, also known as personal pharmaceutical products or PCPPs, are developing contaminants that have the potential to impair human health and the environment in a variety of ecosystems. In this work, waste date stones, a waste product obtained from the seedless dates manufacturing industry, were used to make acid-activated carbon. This material has been utilized to extract the medicinal component ibuprofen from water, with a high adsorption capacity of 126 mg ibuprofen per g of waste date stone-generated activated carbon. A design study was conducted to minimize the amount of activated carbon required, utilizing a two-stage batch adsorption system to optimize the usage of the activated carbon. To test the model and compare the quantities of adsorbent required in the two-stage and single-stage systems under various conditions, several variables were entered into the design model.