In this paper, chitosan (CS) was successfully extracted from shrimp shells waste at two deacetylation temperatures (90 °C and 40 °C). The obtained chitosan at 90 °C showed better physicochemical properties compared to the one prepared at 40 °C with a degree of deacetylation DA = 88%, molecular weight M = 353 KDa, viscosity η = 0.469 dL/g and pKa = 6.49, and its structure was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. The extracted CS was utilized as a film for the adsorption of Eriochrome black T (EBT) dye from aqueous solutions under various experimental conditions. Experimental results showed that the synthesized film exhibited excellent adsorption ability for EBT with an adsorption capacity of 413 mg/g at pH 4.66 for an initial dye concentration of 200 mg/L at 20 °C. The kinetics of adsorption were found to be of pseudo-second order with a high coefficient of determination (R² = 0.9999). Furthermore, the thermodynamic analysis revealed that the adsorption of EBT dye was an endothermic and spontaneous process. Freundlich model fitted well to the experimental data, the numerical value of n = 1.064 indicates that adsorption of EBT onto CS film is favorable. All these results confirm that chitosan-based films prepared from shrimp shells waste could be considered as promising materials for dye removal and as alternatives to expensive adsorbents.

Photocatalytic TiO₂-PVDF/PMMA nano-composites flat sheet membranes were fabricated by phase inversion and then employed in a crossflow filtration pilot to remove model pollutants of various sizes and charge from aqueous solution. The dope solution contained a mixture of PVDF and PMMA as polymers, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as additives, triethyl phosphate (TEP) as green solvent and TiO₂ as immobilized photo catalyst. After undergoing characterization tests such as SEM morphology thickness, porosity, contact angle and water permeability, the membranes were used to eliminate the model pollutants from synthetic aqueous solution. The impact of the operating conditions (i.e., pH, pressure and initial pollutant concentration) and composition of the doping solution on the performance and photocatalytic and antifouling activity of the membranes was investigated. The results showed that Congo Red and Tartrazine despite their small size were rejected at 99% and 81%, respectively, because of their negative charge, while Ciprofloxacin, which is larger than Tartrazine but of neutral charge, crossed the membrane. The permeability did not decrease with a decline in pollutant concentration but diminished when the pressure increased and was reduced by more than half for wastewater.

The present paper exposes the lead adsorption from synthetic effluents using natural and available materials. Pine, beech and fir sawdust’s were used and compared for their lead adsorption ability. To optimize the sorption phenomenon, some process parameters were studied namely temperature, pH, contact time, initial Pb(II) concentration, sawdust’s dosage and granulometry, stirring speed and medium salinity. The materials were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence. The results demonstrated that the pine sawdust gave the best level for lead adsorption (15.5 mg/g) in the following conditions and at 23 ± 2 °C of temperature : pH 5.45 ± 0.05, 100 mg/L of initial Pb(II) concentration and 10 g (per liter of solution) of pine sawdust composed from granules with mean diameter lower than 500 µm. As well, the adsorption kinetics seem to satisfy to Langmuir isotherm model.

The present study aimed to investigate the adsorption capacity of two anionic dyes, namely, Congored (CR) and Coralene Dark Red2B (DR), onto prepared alginate (Alg) and chitosan(Cs) biopolymer films. The two biopolymers were combined at different mass ratios using a “solvent-cast” process to incorporate their unique properties and evaluate their effectiveness in removing the dyes. All samples were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and determination of point of zero charge (pH_pzc). The swelling ratios were determined by gravimetric measurements. The effects of pH, adsorption time, thickness, temperature and initial concentration of CR and DR dyes on the adsorption results were studied systematically. The dye adsorption kinetics showed that the Alg/Cs films at % proportions of 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100 reached equilibrium from 30 min to 180 min with high removal efficiencies that varied between 222.30 mg/g and 842.36 mg/g. The adsorption mechanism of CR and DR onto the synthesized biofilms was confirmed through Langmuir isotherm and the kinetics fitted well by the pseudo-second-order model, suggesting a monolayer and chemisorption process. The thermodynamic results demonstrated the spontaneity and the feasibility of the process as well as the exothermic nature. Hence, the findings revealed that the Alg/Cs biofilms could be employed as potential natural adsorbents for the removal of anionic dye pollutants from aqueous environments.