Applicability of magnetic biochar derived from Fe-enriched sewage sludge for chromate removal from aqueous solution

In this work, inexpensive biochar derived from different feedstock was synthesized, characterized, and tested for Cr(VI) removal from synthetic wastewater. The physical properties of the sludge-based magnetic biochars (SSB) were analyzed using FT-IR, XRD, BET surface area, SEM-EDS, and XPS techniques. The effects of pyrolysis temperature (300–900 ℃), initial Cr(VI) concentration (2–30 mg/L), rotation speed (50–200 rpm), pH (3–11), and co-ions (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Cl−, HCO3− and SO42−) on Cr(VI) removal by SSB were determined in batch modes. It was found that the SSB had the highest Cr(VI) removal (43.7%), as compared to the other feedstock-derived biochars (p ≤ 0.05; Anova test). The characterization data indicated that with an increasing pyrolysis temperature from 300 to 900℃, the surface area, pore volume, and pore size decreased, while the Fe3O4 on SSB was gradually reduced to α-Fe0. With respect to Cr(VI) removal, under optimized conditions of 900℃ of pyrolysis temperature, 2 mg/L of Cr(VI) concentration, 200 rpm of agitation speed, and pH 6.8, a complete Cr(VI) removal could be attained by the SSB900. Its treated effluents could comply with the required Cr(VI) discharge limit of <0.01 mg/L (GB3838-2002) mandated by local legislation. Therefore, further treatment was not required, avoiding additional operational cost. Coexisting ions experiments showed that all of them inhibited the Cr(VI) removal by the adsorbent after 1 h of reaction. The Cr(VI) removal followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm model. The removal mechanism was based on the reduction of Cr(VI) by nZVI on SSB900 and the Fe leakage might have facilitated the Cr(VI) removal. Overall, iron-enriched sewage sludge biochar is promising and cost-effective for treatment of low-level Cr(VI)-contaminated wastewater.