385 - Effects of Waste-to-Resource Biochar from Ground Corn Stover on Nitrate Removal from Water

The cost-effective removal of nitrate from water is an important task in environmental engineering. According to earlier research, a variety of inexpensive waste-to-resource materials, such as rice husk, wheat straw, sawdust have been utilized for nitrate reduction from aqueous solutions. In our study, the effect of ground corn stover biochar (GCSB) on nitrate removal from water has been investigated. The porous graphite-like structure of GCSB offers the potential for nutrient reduction through adsorption from water. The collected Ground Corn Stover (GCS) was heated at 550oC for conversion into GCSB. Then the prepared GCSB was used for the nitrate reduction from water. For the tested solutions, 0.1 M sodium nitrate solution was used along with distilled water to make an initial nitrate concentration of 14 mg as N/L. The prepared solution of 50 mL was used to conduct the tests with various operational parameters and conditions including GCSB dosages (0.15, 0.3, 0.45 and 0.6 g), reaction time (15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 minutes), and initial pH condition (3, 5.7, 6.4, 11 and 12.5). All of the testing was conducted at room temperature of 20oC. It was observed that the nitrate removal percentage increases from 10.7% to 18.6% as the GCSB dosage increases from 0.15 g to 0.3 g. The removal percentage decreased after that and the highest removal percentage of 18.6% was found at 0.3 g GCSB dosage. For different reaction times and initial pH conditions, the peak removal percentage was noticed at 60 minutes and pH 11. Findings from this study can benefit introducing a new cost-effective material for nitrate removal from water.