Assessing the suitability of agro-waste consortium in greywater treatment: A sustainable strategic exploration

The escalating population has led to a notable rise in greywater generation, posing a contemporary challenge necessitating a cost-effective approach to address water scarcity. Natural adsorbents, particularly those derived from lignocellulosic waste, offer promising potential to augment conventional technologies and overcome their limitations. This study investigated the efficacy of a consortium comprising corncobs, coconut husks, and sugarcane bagasse as raw materials for greywater treatment. Optimal treatment conditions were determined with adsorbent dosage of 25g/L, contact time of 120minutes, pH of 6, and temperature of 35°C. Batch processing under these conditions achieved impressive removal rates of 98.4% turbidity, 44.6% conductivity, 44.5% TDS, 86.9% TSS, 44% carbonate, 41.3% bicarbonate, 49.1% total hardness, 27.1% sulphate, 43.1% chlorides, 82.5% COD, and 83.5% BOD. Furthermore, analysis using FTIR, XRD, HRSEM, and TGA highlighted the superior characteristics of the developed adsorbent consortium. Equilibrium adsorption data were fitted to three isothermal models to provide insights into the adsorption process. Accordingly, the isothermal adsorption mechanism behind this is estimated to be electrostatic attraction, proton exchange, hydrogen bonding, and π-π interactions.