Avaliação do poder adsortivo da palma forrageira (Opuntia ficus indica (L.) Mill) para uso na remoção de gasolina comum em corpos d'água.

Abstract

Organic compounds are released constantly in effluents as a result of various industrial activities, which make water unfit for different uses for which it is intended. Fuel stations are main sources of groundwater contamination due to their leakage, causing contamination of both soil and water. Alternative methods with use of materials with easy access and of low cost have been used for remediation of this type of contaminant. Adsorption is a technique widely used for treatment of effluents, by using natural products obtained from by-products of industry and agriculture. Therefore, objective of this work was study of adsorptive power of cactus pear forage biomass (Opuntia ficus indica (L.) Mill) without shelled, vegetal material obtained from agriculture, as adsorbent for removal of gasoline in water bodies. In methodology used in this experiment to obtain biomass of palm in the particulate form, material undergoes a natural drying process and then comminution to powder form. Kinetics and equilibrium were studied, in which adsorption kinetics were evaluated from 5 to 60 minutes (with a 5 minute interval for each experiment) and at equilibrium, with different concentrations of contaminants varying from 5 to 50 %, with a variation rate of 5% for each experiment. As a result, it can be observed that in adsorption kinetics, process was fast, with a greater adsorption efficiency in time 30 minutes, remaining constant between 35 and 45 minutes. In adsorption equilibrium, Langmuir model fitted well to experimental data, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 5.94 g.g-1. Results confirm that cactus pear forage without shelled, natural drought appears as a promising biomass in gasoline adsorption process.