Physical entrapment of chitosan in fixed-down-flow column bed enhances triclosan removal from water

Triclosan (TCS) is an emergent pollutant with wide-ranging deleterious effects on aquatic organisms and humans. There is a growing concern about the development of low-cost and efficient treatment systems for the removal of TCS from water. This report describes the performance of a prototype of a continuous flow, fixed bed column device with physically entrapped industrial by-product chitosan. The effects of initial TCS concentration, adsorbent dose in the column matrix, and flow rate were investigated with regard to removal efficiency (%), adsorption capacity and breakthrough time. To understand the thermodynamic properties of the adsorption process, three kinetic models - Thomas, Yoon-Nelson and Adams-Bohart - were applied to the experimental data for the prediction of characteristic parameters of the adsorption process. The Yoon-Nelson model showed the best agreement between the experimental and calculated values. The column showed a near saturation state (C_t/C₀ = 0.92; C₀ and C_t are the concentration of TCS before and after treatment.) at 90 mg L^-1 TCS concentration after 60 minutes. In view of non-availability of a treatment process for the emergent pollutant TCS, the data of the present investigation will facilitate the development of novel prototypes of column bed reactors for the removal of TCS.