From Waste to Water Purification: Textile-Derived Sorbents for Pharmaceutical Removal.

The presence of pharmaceuticals or their active metabolites in receiving waters is a sign of the inefficient removal of bioactive substrates from wastewater. Adsorption seems to be the most effective and inexpensive method of their removal. Waste management aimed at sorbents is a promising way to sustain several sustainable development goals. In the presented paper, the removal of the two most widely used drugs in the wastewater was examined. Diclofenac and carbamazepine were removed from water and wastewater using textile waste-derived sorbents. Their removal efficiency was verified by testing several process parameters such as the time of the sorption, the presence of interfering inorganic ions, the presence of dissolved organic matter, the initial pH and ionic strength of the solution, and various water matrices. The adsorption capacity was noted for diclofenac (57.1 mg/g) and carbamazepine (21.25 mg/g). The tested process parameters (pH, presence of inorganic ions, dissolved organic matter, ionic strength, water matrix) confirmed that the presented waste materials possessed a great potential for pharmaceutical removal from water matrices.