Removal of pharmaceutical compounds from synthetic hydrolysed urine using granular activated carbon: Column study and predictive modelling

Human urine contains high concentration of pharmaceuticals, a concern that must be addressed if used as a fertiliser. This study systematically evaluated granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption in removing five most commonly found pharmaceuticals in the environment – naproxen (NAP), carbamazepine (CBZ), ibuprofen (IBP), acetaminophen (APAP) and metronidazole (MTZ) from hydrolysed urine. Fixed-bed column experiments were conducted to obtain breakthrough curves and assess GAC (1000 m2g−1) performance in the adsorption of pharmaceuticals at different adsorbent mass (4–12 g·L−1), flow rate (1.15–4.32 L·d−1) and adsorption/contact time at ambient room temperature and pH 9. The highest adsorption capacity was observed at a lower adsorbent mass (4 g·L−1) and lower flow rate (1.15 L·d−1) for all micropollutants. The breakthrough curves showed the highest GAC adsorption capacity for CBZ (56.1 mg·g−1) while MTZ (32.2 mg·g−1) with the lowest adsorption will be the design limiting for column adsorption application. Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models fitted well for predicting empirical breakthrough curves for fixed-bed GAC column adsorption. The artificial neural network (ANN) modelling was able to predict the removal effectiveness of over 99% except for APAP at 84.5%. The study showed that the potential application of GAC column adsorption for micropollutant removal is significant although this study was limited in the range of parameters studied.