COMSATS INSTITUTE OF

INFORMATIOM
TECHNOLOGY
ABBOTTABAD

Assignment No.3

Title: -FRUIT WASTE BIO SORPTION OF SELECTIVE CONTAMINANTS FOR DRINKING WATER
TREATMENT / COMMUNITY SCALE, APPLICATION .

Submitted by Muhammad Amin.

Submitted to Dr. Muhammad Bilal.

Course Environmental Impact Assessment.

Registration No. CIIT/SP15 – R07-012/ATD.

Submitted On 20 –Oct- 2015.

Department of Environmental sciences CIIT Abbottabad.
Contents
What is fruit waste?..............................................................................................................3

Bio- sorption......................................................................................................................4

How to remove contaminants from waste water by fruit waste.......................................4

Scarcity of clean water.....................................................................................................4

Tomato peel: an efficient adsorbent for water purification..........................................5

Apple peel: a biomass for water purification.................................................................5

Remove of Arsenic (III) from drinking water by peels of Oranges, Turnip...................5

PREPARATION OF CHEMICALS AND BIOSORBENT..........................................5

BIOSORPTION STUDIES..............................................................................................6

Adsorption of heavy metals from water using banana and orange peels........................6

Materials............................................................................................................................6

Batch studies......................................................................................................................6

Zeta potential and microscopic observations.................................................................7

Regeneration studies.........................................................................................................7

Application of fruit waste to remove contaminants from waste water............................7

Peels....................................................................................................................................7

Rose petals.........................................................................................................................7

Seeds...................................................................................................................................8

Conclusion.............................................................................................................................8

Reference...............................................................................................................................8
FRUIT WASTE BIO SORPTION OF SELECTIVE CONTAMINANTS FOR DRINKING WATER TREATMENT /
COMMUNITY SCALE, APPLICATION.

What is fruit waste?

Possible products from fruit-processing waste include candied fruit peel, oils, pectin,
reformed fruit pieces, enzymes, wine and vinegar.

The long-term sustainability of bio refinery processes and products is reliant on a dependable
supply of starting materials or substrates. The identification and quantification of potential
input material is therefore a critical starting point in bio refinery design. This review is
focused on the wastes generated from the fruit-processing industry in South Africa. In order
to be considered a useful, feasible feedstock, fruit wastes must be produced in sufficient
quantity (seasonality of the feedstock is an important consideration – see section on a
conceptual model to maximise utilisation of fruit-waste streams for more information
regarding this aspect) and have sufficient potential for value-addition, which outcompetes
that of the current disposal method. It must also be borne in mind that the carbohydrate
content of most of the fruit-waste streams may be low, which also renders their commercial
use a challenge (see section on a conceptual model to maximise utilisation of fruit-waste
streams for more information on how this issue may be addressed).

Fruit processing (canning, juicing, winemaking and drying) generates large quantities of
waste, both solid and liquid. For example, approximately 25–35% of processed apples (dry
mass), 50% of citrus and 20% of grapes end up as waste.12 The solid waste, often called
pomace, is the portion of the fruit that is not utilised, such as skins, pips and fibres. The
pomace has a high lignocellulose content and is very recalcitrant to degradation. In addition,
large volumes of liquid wastes are generated from washing during processing. According to
the South African National Water Act of 1998, wastewater must meet specified standards
before it can be discharged into rivers or used for irrigation. Based on composition, there are
limits to the volume of wastewater permitted for irrigation usage. For example, wastewater
with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of less than 400 mg/L can be used for irrigation at
volumes of up to 500 m3, while irrigation volumes may not exceed 50 m3 on any given day
if the COD is between 400 mg/L and 5000 mg/L. The average COD of wastewater in the
juicing and canning industries is often as high as 10 000 mg/L and therefore requires
extensive treatment before discharge into the environment.
Bio- sorption
Bio sorption is a physiochemical process that occurs naturally in certain biomass which
allows it to passively concentrate and bind contaminants onto its cellular structure.[1]Though
using biomass in environmental clean-up has been in practice for a while, scientists and
engineers are hoping this phenomenon will provide an economical alternative for removing
toxic heavy metals from industrial wastewater and aid in environmental remediation.

How to remove contaminants from waste water by fruit waste

One of the most crucial problems affecting the world today is the scarcity of potable water. In
a bid to make clean water available at low cost, National University of Singapore (NUS),
experimented with water treatment techniques using materials that are easily available, and
came up with novel ways to purify water using the peels of apples and tomatoes. This is the
first time that the peels of the two fruits have been used to remove different types of
pollutants in water.

The studies were conducted under the guidance of Associate Professor Suresh Valiyaveettil
of the Department of Chemistry at the NUS Faculty of Science. The NUS team hopes that
their water purification methods can benefit communities living in places where there is little
electricity or resources to set up a water purification plant.

Scarcity of clean water

The scarcity of clean water is expected to worsen in the future due to over usage, lack of
conservation methods and dwindling natural supply of clean water, even in countries with
significant water resources.

Many hazardous pollutants enter the water supply through many channels, including waste
disposal, industry effluent release or rain water drainage. Such pollutants need to be removed
before the water can be consumed. However, most water purification technologies are not
accessible to economically disadvantaged people around the world.

The challenge for scientists is to develop robust water purification methods that could carry
out water treatment at low cost, with minimal energy consumption and using less chemicals
in the process so as to reduce negative impact on the environment.
Tomato peel: an efficient adsorbent for water purification
Tomato is the second most consumed vegetable in the world, with approximately 30 per cent
consumed as processed products. The disposal of the tomato skin and its other fibrous
materials is an economic waste for many food processing industries.

It’s evaluated the effectiveness of tomato peel as an adsorbent by using different pollutants.
He also studied the structure of the tomato peels to assess their efficiency as biomaterials to
remove toxic metal ions and organic pollutants from water. In addition, factors such as the
pH, nature and amount of adsorbent used for extraction were considered to establish the
optimum conditions under which tomato peel could remove various pollutants from water.

His study revealed that tomato peels can effectively remove different contaminants in water,
including dissolved organic and inorganic chemicals, dyes and pesticides, and they can also
be used in large scale applications.

Apple peel: a biomass for water purification

In addition to tomato peels, Mr Ramakrishna also explored the viability of using the peels of
apples for water purification, as apple peels are easily available as bio-waste from food
processing industries and they are biodegradable.

Similar to tomato peels, apple peels can also remove a range of dissolved water pollutants
through the adsorption process. In order to enhance the ability of apple peels towards
extraction of negatively charged pollutants, Mr Ramakrishna immobilised naturally occurring
zirconium oxides onto the surface of apple peels. Zirconium loaded apple peels were found to
be able to extract anions such as phosphate, arsenate, arsenite, and chromate ions from
aqueous solutions. This method of water purification can also be used for large scale
applications.

Remove of Arsenic (III) from drinking water by peels of Oranges, Turnip

PREPARATION OF CHEMICALS AND BIOSORBENT

Stock solution of Sodium Arsenite (1mg/ml) was prepared by dissolving 173.3mg/100ml
(Loba Chemie). Peels were collected from local market and washed 3-4 times with tap water
followed by washing with distilled water. The bio sorbent was cut into small pieces, oven
dried at 1000 C and then crushed to make fine powder. Activation of peel powder was carried
out by keeping in 1N HCl for 24 hours (Gonen, 2011).
BIOSORPTION STUDIES
Bio sorption experiment was carried out using a rotary shaker at 200 rpm at 300C in a 250 ml
flask containing known concentration of Arsenic (173mg/100ml; 20ml). One gram of
activated peel sample was added and flask was kept in rotary shaker for different time
intervals. Desired pH was adjusted with 1N Na OH or 1N HCl using a pH meter (Hanna).
After the bio sorption studies, filtrate was analysed for arsenic concentration by using UV
visible spectrophotometer (Sidhu,2014).The amount of arsenic sorbed per unit mass of bio
sorbent (mg/g) was calculated using equation 1 and percentage removal by equation 2

q = (Ci-Ce)V/W (1)

Where, Ci and Ce are initial and equilibrium concentrations of As (III) (mg/l), q is adsorption
capacity (mg/g) , V is volume of solution (L) and W is weight of the adsorbent (gm) .

% removal = (C-C0)/C*100 (2)

Where C and C0 are initial and final concentrations of As (III) present in bio sorption studies
(Sidhu, Sama, Parmar, & Bhatt).

Adsorption of heavy metals from water using banana and orange peels
Materials
Banana and orange peels were cut into small pieces, dried, crushed, and washed thoroughly
with double distilled water to remove the adhering dirt. They were finally dried in an air
Water Science and Technology Vol 47 No 1 pp 185–190 © IWA Publishing 2002 185 oven
at 100°C for 24 h. After drying, the adsorbents were sieved. The particle sizes were 1 to 5
mm. Synthetic solutions were prepared from analytical-reagent grade CuSO4, CoSO4,
NiSO4, ZnSO4, and Pb (NO3)2. The sieved peels were treated separately with 0.4 mol L–1
NaOH, 0.4 mol L–1 HNO3, and distilled water. A typical process of acid and alkali treatment
was described as follows. Banana or orange peels (15 g) were soaked in 200 mL of 0.4 mol
L–1 HNO3 for 24 h. They were filtered and rinsed with distilled water until the filtrate was
near neutral.

Batch studies
A batch adsorption run was made to determine the adsorption capacity of metal. Tests were
performed by agitating 0.1 g of adsorbent with 100-mL metal solution at 180 rpm for 24 h.
On centrifugation at 10,000 rpm for 20 min, the residual metal was determined by an atomic
absorption spectrophotometer (Varian Model 202FS). The amount of metals adsorbed was
calculated by mass balance. Each experiment was carried out in duplicate. Reproducibility
was within 3%.

Zeta potential and microscopic observations

Zeta potential of the solution was measured by the Zetasizer 3000 HS system (Malvern
Instruments Ltd., UK). For the SEM imaging, the moistures in the specimens were dried to
their critical points, glued into aluminium plates and spattered with 15 nm gold for scanning
electron microscopy analysis (Model JSM-5600, JEOL Japan) operated at 15 kV.

Regeneration studies
An amount of adsorbent (0.1 g) was treated with 100 mL of heavy metal solution (5 mg/L) in
a conical flash and after equilibrium times it was filtered. The adsorbent was then treated with
100 mL of HCl solution (0.04, 0.05, 0.06, 0.07 mol L–1) for 24 h. The adsorbent was washed
several times with distilled water in order to remove excess acid. It was again treated with
100 mL of metal solution and the above procedure was repeated.(Annadurai, Juang, & Lee,
2003)

Application of fruit waste to remove contaminants from waste water

Peels
Orange peel is mostly composed of cellulose, pectin, hemicellulose, lignin, chlorophyll
pigments and other low molecular weight hydrocarbons. Many of these contain several
hydroxyl functional groups, which make the orange peel a potential substrate for the
synthesis of xanthates. Application of orange peel xanthate for the adsorption of Pb2? Ions
from aqueous solutions was investigated by Liang et al. (2009) in batch experiments. Pristine
orange peel was chemically modified by introducing sulphur groups with the carbon
disulphide treatment in alkaline medium. At 30C and the pH of 5.0, the maximum adsorption
capacity of orange peel xanthate was 204.50 mg/g, which found to increase by about 150%
compared to that of pristine orange peel. The adsorption process can attain equilibrium within
20 min, and kinetics was found to be best-fit pseudo-second-order equation. The adsorption
mechanism was suggested to be a type of complexation
Rose petals
The removal of Pb2? And Zn2? from aqueous solutions was studied by Nasir et al. (2007)
using chemically modified distillation sludge of rose (Rosa centifolia) petals by pre-treatment
with Na OH, Ca(OH)2, Al(OH)3, C6H6, C6H5CHO and HgCl2. Na OH pre-treated biomass
showed remarkable increase in sorption capacity. Maximum adsorption of both metal ions
was observed at the pH of 5. Maximum adsorption capacity of biomass tends to be in the
order Pb2? (87.74 mg/g) [Zn2? (73.8 mg/g) by Na OH pre-treated biomass.

Seeds
Bio sorption potential of sopis juliflora seed powder for Pb2? Ions from aqueous solution was
investigated by Jayaram and Prasad (2009) in batch experiments. The maximum uptake of
metal ions was obtained at pH 6.0. Adsorption equilibrium was established at 360 min. The
pseudo-second order kinetic model provided the best correlation. The maximum uptake of
Pb2? Ions was found to be 40.322 mg/g. The isotherm data of Pb2? Ions bio sorption are
more significantly fitted to Langmuir model. The adsorption process was spontaneous and
exothermic in nature. An adsorption method using Capsicum annul seeds as adsorbent for the
removal of Pb2? Ions from aqueous solutions in a batch system was developed by O¨ zcan et
al. (2007). The authors showed that mechanism involved in adsorption of Pb2? Ions by seeds
of C. annul was mainly attributed to Pb2? Binding of amino and hydroxyl groups. The
maximum adsorption capacity was 1.87 9 10-4 mol/g with adsorption equilibrium of 40 min.
The reaction rate was better described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model.(Saka, Şahin, &
Küçük, 2012)

Conclusion
This work examined the adsorption of metals (Cu2+, Zn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Pb2+) from
synthetic solutions using the acid-, alkali-, and water-treated banana and orange peels. The
adsorption capacity was found to be 7.97 (Pb2+), 6.88 (Ni2+), 5.80 (Zn2+), 4.75 (Cu2+), and
2.55 mg/g (Co2+) using banana peel; and was 7.75 (Pb2+), 6.01 (Ni2+), 5.25 (Zn2+), 3.65
(Cu2+), and 1.82 mg/g (Co2+) using orange peel. Favorable adsorption was achieved at high
pH, with its maximum level of Pb2+ reaching about 7.97 (banana) and 7.75 mg/g (orange).
The banana and orange peels appeared to be useful in the removal of trace metals from
synthetic solutions.
Reference
1. Ramakrishna Mallampati (2013). NUS researchers developed world’s first water
treatment techniques using apple and tomato peels. Published in the American
Chemical rnal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

2. Annadurai, G., Juang, R., & Lee, D. (2003). Adsorption of heavy metals from water using
banana and orange peels. Water Science & Technology, 47(1), 185-190.
3. Saka, C., Şahin, Ö., & Küçük, M. M. (2012). Applications on agricultural and forest waste
adsorbents for the removal of lead (II) from contaminated waters. International Journal of
Environmental Science and Technology, 9(2), 379-394.
4. Sidhu, M., Sama, P., Parmar, J., & Bhatt, S. M. Biosorption of Arsenic (III) from drinking water
by using low cost biosorbents derived from peels of Oranges, Turnip and Peanut shells.