Sustainable Exploitation of Coffee Silverskin in Water Remediation

Angela Malara, Emilia Paone, Patrizia Frontera, Lucio Bonaccorsi, Giuseppe Panzera and Francesco Mauriello
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Angela Malara: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Emilia Paone: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Patrizia Frontera: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Lucio Bonaccorsi: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Giuseppe Panzera: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Francesco Mauriello: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali, Università “Mediterranea”, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-11

Abstract: Coffee silverskin (CS), the main solid waste produced from the coffee industry, has efficiently been used as adsorbent material to remove potential toxic metals (PTMs). In order to assess its suitability in water remediation, kinetic adsorption experiments of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ , and Ni 2+ ions from wastewater were carried out and the adsorption performance of the waste material was compared with that of another well-known waste from coffee industry, spent coffee grounds (SCG). By using CS as sorbent material, ion removal follows the order Cu 2+ > Zn 2+ > Ni 2+ with the adsorption equilibrium occurring after about 20 min. The adsorption efficiency of Ni 2+ ions is the same for both investigated materials, while Cu 2+ and Zn 2+ ions are removed to a lesser extent by using CS. Equilibrium-adsorption data were analyzed using two different isotherm models (Langmuir and Freundlich), demonstrating that monolayer-type adsorption occurs on both CS and SCG surfaces. The overall results support the use of coffee silverskin as a new inexpensive adsorbent material for PTMs from wastewater.

Keywords: potential toxic metals; coffee waste; coffee silverskin; spent coffee grounds; metal adsorption; remediation; Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models; wastewater (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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