Adsorption and desorption behavior of herbicide using bio-based materials

This study examined the glyphosate sorption ability of different bio-based materials, including biochars and activated carbons synthesized from Douglas fir, kraft lignin, and mixed wood pellets. All the biochars showed poor sorption of glyphosate in comparison to the activated carbons derived from biochars and the commercial powdered activated carbon (PAC) investigated in this study. All the biochar-derived activated carbons produced in the laboratory showed comparable glyphosate sorption in comparison to PAC. The activated carbons synthesized from Douglas fir biomass showed the highest glyphosate sorption among the activated carbons investigated. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used to describe the adsorption kinetics of glyphosate onto activated carbons. Adsorption capacity showed better correlation (R² = 0.989) with the total pore volume in comparison to the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and microporosity. The results of batch desorption tests indicated that the biochar-derived activated carbons and PAC showed >60% glyphosate retention. The results of this study indicate that activated carbons derived from biochars produced with thermochemical conversion processes could effectively sorb herbicide such as glyphosate similarly to commercial activated carbon and could be used either as a replacement for PAC in water treatment plants or for on-site treatment of agricultural runoff water.