EFFECT OF OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS ON THE ADSORPTION OF RIFAMPICIN BY LOW COST MATERIAL
Authors: Onyekachukwu E1, Tretsiakova-Mcnally S2, Heather N1, and Coleman H1
Affiliation: 1School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ulster University. 2Belfast School of Architecture and Built Environment, Ulster University

Introduction
Antibiotics consumption is on the increase due to increase in world population and improved life expectancy. The inefficiency of waste water treatment plants has led to the release of antibiotics into aquatic environment in form of complex compounds which has resulted in antibiotics resistance¹. Adsorption which is an established technique for the removal of contaminants due to it features such as lower toxicity, environmental amiability, simple design, low energy cost and safe operation Lignocellulose material like sawdust are utilized as adsorbent due to their porosity, wide surface area, easy modification, good liquid retention capacity
and biodegradability².

Objectives

To evaluate lignocellulosic material for the adsorption of pharmaceuticals.
To access the effect of physio-chemical parameters on adsorption process.
To access the effect of acid pretreatment on sawdust.

Discussion
The result of this research shows that at pH 3, the treated sawdust had the maximum adsorption capacity with a removal efficiency of 73% compared to raw sawdust 62.6%. At an initial concentration of 25μg/ml at pH 7, the treated sawdust had a removal efficiency of 52.45% compared to the raw sawdust of 32.79%. Furthermore, contact time result shows that after 48 hours, the treated sawdust had the highest removal efficiency of (57.20%)compared to the raw sawdust (46.29%). At a temperature of 350C treated sawdust had a removal efficiency of 55.6% compared to raw sawdust which was 34.62%.

Conclusion

Rifanpicinwas adsorbed by the treated sawdust with a removal efficiency of 73% as observed, which suggest the potential of Sitka spruce sawdust as an effective and low-cost  adsorbent for the removal of antibiotics from water.

The next phase of this research work is to characterize the saw dust samples to ascertain the effect of pretreatment.

References
Akinsanmi, O., Kaya, S., Tretsiakova-McNally, S., Arnscheidt, J. and Coleman, H.M., 2019, July. Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: Adsorption of meropenem and ciprofloxacin on lignocellulosic substrate from sawdust. In European Waste Water Management Conference
Bankole, D.T., Oluyori, A.P. and Inyinbor, A.A., 2023. The removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from aqueous solution by Agro-waste. Arabian Journal of Chemistry, 16(5), p.104699.