Application of biorefinery by-product of L. herb for green treatment of synthetic dye impurity in aquatic environment: a circular economy based approach to water purification.

In this work, the performance of residual biomass of L. plant from the process of bio-oil production toward the green removal of synthetic dye pollution from aquatic medium was systematically studied for the first time based on the circular economy strategy. The characterization of material was performed using Electron Microscope of Scanning and Infrared Spectrometer of Fourier Transform. The main process variables like pH, biosorbent amount, synthetic dye loading, and contact duration were optimized by the batch biosorption experiments to achieve the maximum remediation yield. The analyses of kinetics, equilibrium, and thermodynamics were conducted to understand the possible mechanism of purification. The experimental dynamics and equilibrium data were in better agreement with the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models. For the targeted model synthetic dye compound (C. I. Basic Red 46), the biosorption capacity was obtained as 136.2 mg g at the optimized conditions of pH of 8, biosorbent amount of 10 mg (100 mg L), synthetic dye loading of 30 mg L, and duration of 360 min. The treatment process was favorable, spontaneous, and physical. The characterization operation showed that the dye molecules were restrained on the rough surface of biosorbent. This study reveals that the reuse of herbal oil refinery residue as a biosorbent can present an economic, efficient, and eco-friendly option for the remediation of synthetic dye pollution in aqueous medium.