Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141

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Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering

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Biochar derived from the spent coffee ground for ammonium adsorption
from aqueous solution
Van-Truc Nguyen a, Thi-Dieu-Hien Vo b, *, Thanh Tran c, Thanh-Nho Nguyen b,
Thi-Ngoc-Chau Le b, Xuan-Thanh Bui d, e, Long-Giang Bach c
a
Department of Environmental Sciences, Saigon University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Viet Nam
b
Faculty of Environmental and Food Engineering, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Viet Nam
c
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, 70000, Viet Nam
d
Key Laboratory of Advanced Waste Treatment Technology, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh (VNU-HCM), Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City,
700000, Viet Nam
e
Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Viet Nam

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Water sources are contaminated with nutrients such as nitrogen, which can cause eutrophication, resulting in
Biochar degradation of the aquatic environment and severe effects on aquatic ecosystems. In this study, biochar derived
Spent coffee ground from spent coffee grounds (CGB) was prepared and investigated for ammonium (NH4+) adsorption in water at
Ammonium adsorption
different pH, NH4+ concentrations, and CGB dosage conditions. The most suitable conditions for NH4+
Wastewater treatment
adsorption by CGB were found at pH of 7, initial NH4+ concentration of 40 mg L− 1, and CGB dosage of 2 g L− 1.
Data of NH4+ adsorption was highly compatible with the Langmuir isotherm with an R2 of 0.976. Compared with
biochars prepared from other agricultural by-products, CGB exhibited a high NH4+ adsorption capacity (Qmax =
51.52 mg g− 1). Pseudo-second-order model fitted well the adsorption data. The use of spent coffee grounds to
prepare NH4+ adsorbent biochar not only saves the cost of solid waste treatment but also creates materials to
adsorb pollutants in the water and is a source of additional nutrients for crops or soil improvement.

1. Introduction
Ammonium (NH4+) is one of the nutrients released from various
wastewater sources, e.g. residents, industries, agriculture, and landfill.
In domestic wastewater, nitrogen occupies about 10% of the total
contaminant load. The concentration of ammonium in municipal
wastewater is up to 200 mg L− 1, of which organic nitrogen accounts for
about 60% [1]. In the industrial sector, ammonia in water is generated
significantly from waste sources from food processing, oil refining,
textile dyeing, papermaking, rubber processing, fertilizers, and tanning.
The concentration of ammonium fluctuates greatly and is up to 600 mg
L− 1 [2,3]. In the livestock sector, feces and urine are the largest con­
tributors to ammonium emissions in livestock wastewater. Typically,
very high concentrations of ammonium were found in sludge from cattle
ranches in North Carolina, USA (2330 mg L− 1) and Nonsan, South Korea
(17,704 mg L− 1) [4,5]. One of the other major sources of ammonium
emissions of concern is leachate. The concentration of ammonium in
leachate from the new landfill was shown to be significantly higher than
that of the old leachate [6]. Typically, the ammonium concentration
ranges from 330 to 1522 mg L− 1 in the leachate from the old landfill in
Finland and Korea. Meanwhile, relatively high ammonium concentra­
tions (2260 - 3000 mg L− 1) were detected in the leachate from the new
landfill in Hong Kong [7]. If these wastewaters are not treated properly,
there will be a residual amount of ammonia in the water body, resulting
in adverse effects on human health through the consequences of eating
toxic fish and polluted drinking the water.
Many technologies have been researched and developed for the
treatment of ammonia in water such as physical processes (membrane
filtration, air stripping, ion exchange, capacitor deionization, adsorp­
tion) [8,9], chemical processes (precipitation, oxidation, electro­
chemical oxidation) [2,10] and biological processes (conventional
activated sludge, photobioreactor, membrane bioreactor, membrane
photobioreactor) [11]. Chemical addition technologies offer high
treatment efficiency but relatively high costs. The biotechnologies are

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: nvtruc@sgu.edu.vn (V.-T. Nguyen), vtdhien@ntt.edu.vn (T.-D.-H. Vo), thanhtran2710@gmail.com (T. Tran), ntnho@ntt.edu.vn (T.-N. Nguyen),
ltnchau@ntt.edu.vn (T.-N.-C. Le), bxthanh@hcmut.edu.vn (X.-T. Bui), blgiang@ntt.edu.vn (L.-G. Bach).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscee.2021.100141
Received 22 August 2021; Received in revised form 24 September 2021; Accepted 26 September 2021
Available online 28 September 2021
2666-0164/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
V.-T. Nguyen et al. Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141

not expensive but the processing time is quite long. For physical tech­ ammonium adsorbent in the aqueous solution. The morphological
nologies, membrane-related technologies are expensive and technically properties, functional groups, and surface area of CGB were also deter­
operating. Nitrogen is also an essential nutrient source in fertilizer mined. Influential factors such as initial NH4+ concentration, CGB
composition. In recent years, the circular economy and valuable waste dosage, and initial pH were evaluated. In addition, NH4+ adsorption
recovery have been of particular interest to the scientific community isotherm on CGB was also studied.
[12]. Therefore, research is focused on nitrogen recovery as an alter­
native fertilizer product instead of treating it as in the past. Physical and 2. Materials and methods
chemical technologies are widely used to recover nitrogen such as
struvite precipitation [10], electrochemical precipitation [5], and 2.1. Preparation of biochar from coffee grounds
adsorption [13,14]. In which, adsorption by biochar prepared from
agricultural biomass is considered a low cost, simple, and environmen­ Coffee grounds (CG) are collected from coffee shops in Ho Chi Minh
tally friendly technology [15,16]. Indeed, the production of biochar is City. The synthesis process of biochar is shown in Fig. 1. These raw CG
simpler than activated carbon, the cost of biochar derived from agri­ materials were washed several times with DI water and dried at 70 ◦ C for
cultural biomass ($0.076 kg− 1) is much lower than that of the com­ approximately 24 h. The CG was then soaked with 2 M KOH for about 5
mercial adsorbents [17]. h and dried at 70 ◦ C for about 24 h before being pyrolysis at 500 ◦ C for 2
There are many types of biomass that have been studied and pre­ hours, heating rate 10 ◦ C min− 1 (modified based on Cho et al. [27]). A
pared into biochar for ammonium treatment such as wood cuttings, rice stream of N2 gas (100 mL min− 1) was provided to eliminate oxygen.
husks, grapevine canes, brewers spent grain, wheat husk, lodgepole pine After pyrolysis, the CGB product was washed with distilled water and
wood, cacao shell, corncob, corn straw, manure [18–20]. However, very HCl to neutral pH, dried at 70 ◦ C, then stored in a desiccator before
little research has been done on the application of biochar from coffee experimenting.
grounds for ammonium removal. Coffee is a popular beverage all over
the world. Coffee production tends to increase by 1.2% annually [21].
2.2. Set up of batch experiments
According to statistics by August 2021, the world’s coffee production is
over 9.2 million tons [22]. To prepare beverage from 1 ton of coffee
Investigation of the influence of pH (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) on the NH4+
beans, about 0.65 tons of coffee grounds are discarded. Spent coffee
removal capacity of CGB was carried out at the initial NH4+ of 100 mg
grounds contain different functional groups, namely lignin, cellulose,
L− 1, CGB dosage of 1 g L− 1, agitation of 200 rpm for 24 h. The influence
fatty acids, and hemicellulose [23]. In addition, the coffee grounds
of the CGB dosage (0.5; 1; 1.5; 2; 2.5 g L− 1) on the NH4+ removal ca­
contain most of the lignin structure which is effective in adsorption
pacity was carried out at the condition of initial NH4+ of 100 mg L− 1, pH
applications [24]. Indeed, Kim et al. [23] prepared biochar from the
of 7, agitation of 200 rpm for 24 h. The influence of the initial NH4+
spent coffee ground (CGB) at 400 ◦ C for 16 h to adsorb heavy metals in
concentration (15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 mg L− 1) on the NH4+
acid mining drainage. The results show that CGB exhibits very high
removal capacity of CGB was performed at the CGB dosage of 2 g L− 1, pH
removal efficiency, namely 99% for Cd, 88% for Cu, >99% for Pb and
of 7, agitation of 200 rpm for 24 h. The NH4+ adsorption capacity was
99% for Zn. Oladipo et al. [25] synthesized the CGB and Fe3O4-coated
investigated over time from 0 to 120 minutes at the condition of initial
CGB at 300 ◦ C for 2 h for tetracycline removal. The results showed that
NH4+ concentration of 40 mg L− 1, CGB dosage of 2 g L− 1, pH of 7, and
the Fe3O4-coated CGB had the maximum adsorption capacity (285.6 mg
agitation of 200 rpm. Besides, the pHpzc of CGB was determined by
g− 1) much higher than that of the CGB (184.5 mg g− 1). Recently,
performing with 0.1 M NaCl solution, the dose of CGB was 1 g L− 1, at
Nguyen et al. [26] prepared the alkaline modified CGB at 500 ◦ C for 2 h
different pH (2–11), agitation speed of 200 rpm within 24 hours. The
for tetracycline removal. The maximum adsorption capacity was ob­
solution samples will be measured for pH before and after the 24-h re­
tained 113.6 mg g− 1 at pH 7.45.
action. The pH of the solution was adjusted to a given value by 0.01 M
The literature review shows that the CGB has been successfully used
HCl and 0.01 M NaOH.
to remove various pollutants. Therefore, the CGB is expected to provide
a potential adsorbent to remove NH4+ from the aqueous solution.
However, there have been no studies using CGB for ammonium removal 2.3. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic model
from water. This study aims to prepare the CGB and use it as an
In this study, the NH4+ adsorption isotherm of CGB was evaluated by

Fig. 1. Schematic of the synthesis of biochar from spent coffee grounds.

2
V.-T. Nguyen et al.
Langmuir and Freundlich models [28].
Qmax KL Ce
Langmuir ​ model ​ Qe =
1 + KL Ce
1 The CGB surface was observed by SEM analysis. The results of
RL =
1 + KL Co
Freundlich ​ model: ​ Qe = KF Cen
1
where Qe (mg g− 1) is adsorption capacity at equilibrium time, Qmax (mg
g− 1) is maximum adsorption capacity, KL (L mg− 1) is Langmuir constant,
Ce (mg L− 1) is equilibrium NH4+ concentration, RL is separation con­
stant, Co (mg L− 1) is initial NH4+concentration, KF and n = Freundlich
constant.
The adsorption rate of materials is usually determined by kinetic
models [28]. The results of the NH4+ adsorption experiment were fitted
by the following two kinetic models:
Pseudo − first ​ order: ​ Qt = Qe (1 − e− K1 t
) (4)
Pseudo − second ​ order: ​ Qt =
K2 Q2e t
1 + K2 Qe t
where Qt (mg g− 1) is adsorption capacity at time t (min), Qe (mg g− 1) is
adsorption capacity at equilibrium time, K1 (min− 1) and K2 (g mg− 1
min− 1) are rate constants.
2.4. Analytical methods
The properties of biochar were determined by the Institute of
Chemical Technology - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
To understand the surface microstructure, CGB was analyzed by SEM
technique using JEOL-JSM6400 (Japan). The functional groups of CGB
were analyzed by FTIR technique with Bruker Tensor 27 IR machine
(USA) in the spectral range from 400 cm− 1 to 4000 cm− 1. The surface
area (BET) of CGB was determined by a Surface Area Analyzer (Quan­
tachrome Instruments, Florida, USA). In this study, ammonium con­
centration was determined photometrically at 430 nm. Langmuir and
Freundlich’s adsorption isotherms are determined according to Nguyen
et al. [26].
2.5. Data statistical methods
The data in the study were processed and statistically analyzed using
data analysis software IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 and OriginPro
(OriginLab Corporation).
Fig. 2. SEM (left) and FTIR (right) images of CGB.
Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141
3. Results and discussion
(1) 3.1. Characteristics of CGB
(2) evaluation through SEM images show that the surface structure is rough,
with many tiny, porous holes, making CGB better able to absorb and
(3) hold pollutants (Fig. 2). Indeed, CGB activated with KOH or NaOH can
increase the surface area leading to improved pollutant adsorption ca­
pacity [29]. The surface area (BET) of CGB has a value of 46.318 m2 g− 1.
From Table 1, it can be seen that the surface area of biochar varies with
the type of material and the pyrolysis conditions (time and tempera­
ture). In general, the surface area of CGB in this study was quite high
compared to other materials. This property has also enhanced the
ammonium removal efficiency of CGB.
FTIR spectra showing the functional groups on the CGB surface are
shown in Fig. 2. The strength of 3600 - 3000 cm− 1 can be attributed to
the elongation of the hydroxyl functional groups (O–H) due to dehy­
dration of the holocellulose [28,30]. In this study, the peaks at 3445
cm− 1 are assigned to straight-chain O–H derived from hydroxyl groups.
(5) The peak at 2935 cm− 1 corresponds to the C–H stretching of the fatty
groups. The C– – O stretching (1740 cm− 1) of carbonyls, carboxylic
groups; C = C asymmetric stretching (1630 cm− 1) of the carbonyl group
from lignin, the C–O stretching of COOH (1379 cm− 1) and the C–H
stretching of aromatic rings from lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose
(669 cm− 1) [13] also presented in the CGB. These functional groups can
contribute significantly to the NH4+ adsorption process by CGB.
Point zero charge pH (pHpzc) represents the pH value at which the
surface charge of the adsorbent is zero. It shows the comprehensive ef­
fects of the functional groups on the biochar surface. Qiu et al. [31]
reported that the adsorbent surface becomes positively charged when
the pHpzc is greater than the solution pH and conversely it becomes
negatively charged when the pHpzc is less than the solution pH. The
results of this study show that the pHpzc was 7.6. The surface of CGB will
be negatively charged, as a result, CGB will easily adsorb positive ions
like NH4+ at the solution pH above 7.6.
3.2. Effect of pH on the adsorption capacity of CGB
The pH of the solution will affect the surface charge of the biochar
and the ammonium ionization [32]. At low pH, some functional groups
on biochar surfaces have a positive charge that will repulse NH4+ ions in
the aqueous solution, resulting in reduced adsorption efficiency [33]. In
addition, the competition of H+ ions with NH4+ ions makes the
adsorption efficiency decrease at the low pH values. At higher pH, the
stronger the ionization of NH4+ to NH3 will take place. At this time, the
electrostatic adsorption mechanism does not prevail, so the adsorption
capacity of biochar will decrease [34].
The efficiency of ammonium adsorption on CGB at different pH
values is shown in Fig. 3a. The results show that the ammonium
adsorption capacity of CGB was low at low pH values. When the pH was
3
V.-T. Nguyen et al. Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141

Table 1
Summary of applications of different biochars in the adsorption of ammonium in aqueous solution.
Biochars Pyrolysis condition BET (m2 g− 1) pH Initial NH4+-N (mg L− 1) Biochar (g L− 1) Qmax (mg g− 1) References

Spent coffee ground soaked in KOH 500 ◦

C, 2h 46.32 7 15–100 2 51.52 This study
Wood 600 ◦
C, 10 h 273.62 7 1400 20 44.64 [30]
Rice husk 600 ◦
C, 10 h 10.99 7 1400 20 39.80 [30]
Straw 500 ◦
C, 2h 11.7 – 0–150 – 20.54 [43]
Spruce sawdust soaked in Na2CO3 400 ◦
C, 1h 1.50 7 10–110 2 17.96 [35]
Manure 500 ◦
C, 2h 9.7 – 0–150 – 15.44 [43]
Pineapple peel 400 ◦
C, 4h 140.00 7.27 157–569 8 13.40 [13]
Peanut shell soaked in KMnO4 and KOH 500 ◦
C, 2h NA 7 10–100 12 6.92 [40]
Wood 500 ◦
C, 2h 52.4 – 0–150 – 5.67 [43]
Pineapple peel 300 ◦
C, 2h 0.54 NA 10–100 1 5.60 [28]
Pine sawdust 300 ◦
C <1 7 10–100 3 5.38 [37]
Orange peel 300 ◦
C, 2h 0.55 NA 10–100 1 4.71 [28]
Pine sawdust 550 ◦
C 189.20 7 10–100 3 3.37 [37]
Peanut shell 500 ◦
C, 2h NA 7 10–100 2 3.83 [40]
Coffee husk 350 ◦
C, 1h – – – – 2.80 [47]
Pitaya peel 400 ◦
C, 2h 1.46 NA 10–100 1 2.65 [28]
Wheat straw 550 ◦
C 55.24 7 10–100 3 2.08 [37]
Wood chips 700 ◦
C 186.00 5 10–100 10 0.96 [48]
Rice husk 550 ◦
C, 3h 42.22 NA 0.5–6 50 0.10 [49]
Granular activated carbon – 1100 NA 10 22 0.07 [50]

Note: NA – not available.

Fig. 3. Influential factors such as (a) initial pH, (b) CGB dosage, (c) initial NH4+ concentration and (d) contact time on the NH4+ adsorption of CGB.

increased, the adsorption efficiency increased gradually at first and
tended to decrease gradually when the pH was greater than 9. Similar
results are also found in previous studies [28,30,35]. At a pH range
lower than 6, ammonium exists in the form of ion NH4+, the adsorption
efficiency is low due to the competition of H+ and NH4+ [36]. When pH
> 6 ammonium exists in the form of NH4+, there is no competition and
increases the binding capacity of NH4+ to the CGB surface. In contrast, at
high pH values, ammonium converts to the electrically neutral form of
NH3, which also causes a decrease in the adsorption capacity. Kizito
et al. [30] also showed that when the solution pH was greater than 8, the
ammonium adsorption capacity of biochar decreased. The pKa value of
ammonium is 9.3, so in this study, the adsorption efficiency decreased in
the range of pH 10–11 due to the influence of ammonium ionization. In
general, from the results obtained in this study, the pH of 7 will be
proposed because it saves costs in pH adjustment and ensures relatively
high ammonium treatment efficiency.
3.3. Effect of dose of CGB on the adsorption capacity of CGB
The ammonium adsorption efficiency studied at different doses of
CGB is shown in Fig. 3b. The ammonium adsorption efficiency increased
rapidly (from 26.6% to 73.7%) when the dose of CGB was in the range of
0.5–1.5 g L− 1 and gradually stabilized when the dose of CGB was
increased from 1.5 to 2.5 g L− 1. Chemical capture mechanisms
contribute to ammonium removal rather than physical capture mecha­
nisms such as ion exchange, electrostatic attraction [30]. Therefore, the
higher the CGB content, the larger the contact surface will be and the
more ammonium will be adsorbed on the surface [37]. However, when
the biochar concentration was increased to a certain value, the NH4+
adsorption increased insignificantly because the overlap of the adsor­
bent layers could obscure the oxidizing active sites [38]. Indeed, in this
study, the NH4+ removal efficiency gradually increased as the amount of
CGB increased up to 2 g L− 1. However, as the CGB dose continued to
increase, performance did not improve. This same trend was also found

4
V.-T. Nguyen et al.
in previous studies [28,30]. Therefore, to save material costs, the CGB
amount of 2 g L− 1 was proposed to be used for the next experiments.
3.4. Effect of contact time on the adsorption capacity of CGB
The ammonium adsorption capacity of CGB was investigated in the
contact time of 5–120 minutes, the initial NH4+ of 40 mg L− 1, pH of 7,
and the CGB of 2 g L− 1. The results shown in Fig. 3c show that in the first
5–30 minutes, the adsorption rate increases very quickly, and then
gradually stabilizes. This trend can be explained as follows: the initial
rapid adsorption is due to the physical process that occurs by mass
transfer between the solid and liquid phases; The subsequent slower
phase exhibits physical adsorption deterioration with ionic equilibrium
and slight desorption of bound NH4+ ions; then, the gradual increase is
due to chemical adsorption and internal diffusion and reaches saturation
of the active sites [39]. Similar findings were also reported in the pre­
vious study [13,30].
3.5. Effect of initial ammonium concentration on the adsorption capacity
of CGB
The NH4+ adsorption efficiency studied at different initial NH4+
contents is presented in Fig. 3d. The adsorption efficiency increased
significantly when the NH4+ increased from 15 to 40 mg L− 1. The
highest NH4+ removal efficiency (88.4%) was obtained at an NH4+
concentration of 40 mg L− 1. Although, when continuing to increase the
concentration from 40 mg L− 1 up to 100 mg L− 1, the removal efficiency
was hardly improved, the adsorption capacity (the amount of NH4+
adsorbed) gradually increased. According to Otieno et al. [13], at low
NH4+ concentrations, the ion flux density is low, so the adsorption sites
are not occupied. However, when increasing the concentration of NH4+,
the density of ions will increase and it will be easier to access the
available adsorption sites on the biochar surface, resulting in improved
adsorption efficiency. Many previous studies have also reported these
same results [13,30,40].
3.6. Ammonium adsorption isotherm of CGB
Langmuir and Freundlich’s models are often employed in adsorption
isotherm studies [34]. The results show that the Langmuir model (R2 =
0.976) was more compatible with the adsorption data than the
Freundlich model (R2 = 0.921) (Fig. 4). The separation coefficient (RL)
ranges from 0.17 to 0.51, showing that CGB was very suitable for
ammonium adsorption [41]. The maximum NH4+ adsorption capacity of
CGB was 51.52 mg g− 1, which was relatively higher than that of other
biochars shown in Table 1. The summarized data in Table 1 indicates
that the NH4+ removal capacity of biochar depends on many factors
Fig. 4. Ammonium adsorption isotherms of CGB.
5
Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141
such as materials, experimental conditions, and the surface area of the
adsorbent. According to Xu et al. [42], The ratio of atoms (C, H, N, O)
greatly contributes to the adsorption capacity of biochar. Biochar with a
high H/C ratio is more favorable for the adsorption of inorganic con­
taminants. In addition, the high O/C ratios indicate that biochar has
high polarity and hydrophilicity, which is beneficial for the adsorption
of polar contaminants like NH4+ [28]. In this study, the O/C ratio of CGB
reached 0.11, 1.6–2.6 times lower than the materials studied by Hu et al.
[28] but the surface area of CGB was 30–82 times higher, so the
adsorption capacity of CGB was significantly higher. Overall, most
studies have proved that biochar has a promising potential for ammo­
nium removal.
3.7. Ammonium adsorption kinetic of CGB
The NH4+ adsorption on CGB was rapid during the first 30 min, then
reached equilibrium and stabilized from 40 min onwards (Fig. 5). In the
early stage, the large number of unoccupied adsorption sites and the
high concentration gradient accelerated the adsorption process. The
same phenomenon was also found during the adsorption of NH4+ onto
other biochars [37]. Table 2 describes the kinetic parameters and
adsorption rate of the CGB. Experimental data fitted well with the
pseudo-second-order model with high correlation coefficient (R2 =
0.999), suggesting that chemical sorption was involved the NH4+
removal machenism of adsorbent studied [43]. Moreover, the calculated
adsorption capacities (Qe,cal) of the CGB closely matched its corre­
sponding experimental adsorption capacity. Previous studies also
demonstrated that the kinetics of NH4+ adsorption onto different ad­
sorbents also followed a pseudo-second-order model [37,39,43,44].
3.8. Potential ammonium removal mechanism of CGB
The NH4+ adsorption mechanism of biochar can involve interactions
between the adsorbent and adsorbate such as ion exchange, physical
adsorption, surface complexation, and electrostatic attraction [45].
Typically, biochars have a high cation exchange capacity resulting in a
relatively high NH4+ adsorption capacity [44]. The cation exchange
capacity of CGB was not determined in this study. However, many
studies found that NH4+ adsorption did not exceed the cation exchange
capacity of biochars. Therefore, physical adsorption may not be the
main mechanism for NH4+ removal. Based on the aggregated data from
previous studies and this study (Table 1), biochar has high surface area
but lower NH4+ adsorption capacity. It shows that small surface area
will lead to low NH4+ adsorption capacity and vice versa. Therefore,
physical adsorption is not a major contributor to the NH4+ adsorption of
CGB. Therefore, chemical interactions between NH4+ and different
functional groups on biochar will significantly affect the adsorption of
NH4+ [37]. The surface of CGB biochar had a high polarity corre­
sponding to a high O/C ratio (0.11), which could promote electrostatic
interactions leading to increased ammonium adsorption capacity [46].
The complexation of functional groups (including carboxyl and
carbonyl) on the surface of biochar can enhance NH4+ adsorption. In
general, chemical bonding and electrostatic interactions contribute to
the ammonium adsorption mechanism of BCG rather than ion-exchange
or physical adsorption.
4. Conclusions
Research on the influence of factors on ammonium adsorption ca­
pacity by biochar from coffee grounds (CGB) shows that the optimal
condition for removing NH4+ is pH of 7, initial NH4+ of 40 mg L− 1, the
CGB dosage of 2 g L− 1, and agitation of 200 rpm. The maximum
ammonium adsorption capacity (Qmax) of the CGB reached 51.52 mg
g− 1. The ammonium adsorption process followed the Langmuir isotherm
with a high R2 of 0.976. The results show that the CGB has great po­
tential to remove ammonium from water. Therefore, the CGB is expected
V.-T. Nguyen et al. Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering 4 (2021) 100141

Fig. 5. Adsorption kinetics of NH4+ on CGB (a), pseudo-first-order model (b) and pseudo-second-order model (c).

Acknowledgments
Table 2
Kinetic parameters of NH4+ adsorption on the CGB.
The authors would like to thank the collaborative efforts of re­
Model Pseudo-first-order Pseudo-second-order searchers from many universities. The writers like to express their
Parameters K1 (L Qe,cal R2 K2 (g Qe,cal R2 gratitude to Ms. Nguyen-Hoang-Yen Ho for assisting with sample
min− 1) (mg mg− 1 (mg collection throughout the study.
g− 1) min− 1) g− 1)
− 0.000013 34.84 0.5114 0.0219 48.98 0.999
References

to be one of the potential green materials that can be applied to different
sources of ammonium or organic and inorganic pollutants. However, to
be able to scale up for practical applications, it is necessary to conduct
research on adsorption columns with many different types of
ammonium-contaminated water. The reusability of the CGB for multiple
runs should be evaluated. Utilization of post-adsorbed CGB as a of
nitrogen-rich source to fertilize crops or improve the soil in agriculture
also needs to be further studied. In addition, a cost-benefit analysis from
the production, application and reusability of the CGB should also be
performed.
Funding
This research is funded by Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi
Minh City, Vietnam [grant number 2021.01.28].
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal re­
lationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
Thi-Dieu-Hien Vo reports financial support was provided by Nguyen Tat
Thanh University.
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