IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i3p997-d1577496.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Application of Novel Biochar Derived from Experimental Sewage Sludge Gasification as an Adsorbent for Heavy Metals Removal

Author

Listed:
  • Domagoj Nakić

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Hana Posavčić

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Katarina Licht

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Dražen Vouk

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia)

Abstract

The growing amounts of sewage sludge (SS) and water pollution caused by heavy metals are major environmental concerns. This study addresses both issues by investigating the potential of biochar derived from SS gasification at an experimental plant as an effective adsorbent for the removal of selected heavy metals, cadmium, chromium, copper, and lead, from synthetic wastewater. A Box–Behnken design was used to determine the influence of the biochar mass, initial heavy metal concentration, pH, and time on the heavy metal removal. For the statistical analysis, 104 experiments were performed. The pristine SS biochar demonstrated an adsorption capacity reaching up to 46.64 mg/g for Cd, 43.89 mg/g for Cr, 42.42 mg/g for Cu, and 72.66 mg/g for Pb from single-component synthetic solutions in acidic-to-neutral conditions, with an over 99% removal efficiency for all four heavy metals under optimal conditions. The removal of all the tested metals followed pseudo-second-order kinetics, with Cd fitting the Langmuir model and Pb, Cr, and Cu fitting the Freundlich model. This paper also provides suggestions for further research focused on the multiple uses of biochar as an adsorbent and later as a substitute material in the construction industry, aiming to achieve an integrated approach and maximizing the overall sustainability of wastewater treatment and waste management by utilizing waste as a resource.

Suggested Citation

  • Domagoj Nakić & Hana Posavčić & Katarina Licht & Dražen Vouk, 2025. "Application of Novel Biochar Derived from Experimental Sewage Sludge Gasification as an Adsorbent for Heavy Metals Removal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-27, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:997-:d:1577496
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/997/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/997/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ramachandran, Srikkanth & Yao, Zhiyi & You, Siming & Massier, Tobias & Stimming, Ulrich & Wang, Chi-Hwa, 2017. "Life cycle assessment of a sewage sludge and woody biomass co-gasification system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 369-376.
    2. Xia Li & Hongyu Jia & Lihua Jiang & Zhengwei Mou & Bo Zhang & Zihui Zhang & Yan Chen, 2024. "Biochar Prepared from Steam-Exploded Bitter Melon Vine for the Adsorption of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solution: Kinetics, Isotherm, Thermodynamics and Mechanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-14, August.
    3. Beata Doczekalska & Natalia Ziemińska & Krzysztof Kuśmierek & Andrzej Świątkowski, 2024. "Activated Carbons Derived from Different Parts of Corn Plant and Their Ability to Remove Phenoxyacetic Herbicides from Polluted Water," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-18, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabbrielli, Roberto & Barontini, Federica & Frigo, Stefano & Bressan, Luigi, 2022. "Numerical analysis of bio-methane production from biomass-sewage sludge oxy-steam gasification and methanation process," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    2. Kuo, Po-Chih & Illathukandy, Biju & Wu, Wei & Chang, Jo-Shu, 2021. "Energy, exergy, and environmental analyses of renewable hydrogen production through plasma gasification of microalgal biomass," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    3. Zhang, Zhe & Liu, Congmin & Liu, Wei & Du, Xu & Cui, Yong & Gong, Jian & Guo, Hua & Deng, Yulin, 2017. "Direct conversion of sewage sludge to electricity using polyoxomatelate catalyzed flow fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1019-1026.
    4. Ardolino, Filomena & Lodato, Concetta & Astrup, Thomas F. & Arena, Umberto, 2018. "Energy recovery from plastic and biomass waste by means of fluidized bed gasification: A life cycle inventory model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 299-314.
    5. Tong, Huanhuan & Yao, Zhiyi & Lim, Jun Wei & Mao, Liwei & Zhang, Jingxing & Ge, Tian Shu & Peng, Ying Hong & Wang, Chi-Hwa & Tong, Yen Wah, 2018. "Harvest green energy through energy recovery from waste: A technology review and an assessment of Singapore," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 163-178.
    6. Fang, Yi & Li, Xian & Ascher, Simon & Li, Yize & Dai, Leilei & Ruan, Roger & You, Siming, 2023. "Life cycle assessment and cost benefit analysis of concentrated solar thermal gasification of biomass for continuous electricity generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    7. Matteo Baldelli & Lorenzo Bartolucci & Stefano Cordiner & Giorgio D’Andrea & Emanuele De Maina & Vincenzo Mulone, 2023. "Biomass to H2: Evaluation of the Impact of PV and TES Power Supply on the Performance of an Integrated Bio-Thermo-Chemical Upgrading Process for Wet Residual Biomass," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-17, March.
    8. Tong, Huanhuan & Shen, Ye & Zhang, Jingxin & Wang, Chi-Hwa & Ge, Tian Shu & Tong, Yen Wah, 2018. "A comparative life cycle assessment on four waste-to-energy scenarios for food waste generated in eateries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1143-1157.
    9. Octávio Alves & Bruno Garcia & Bruna Rijo & Gonçalo Lourinho & Catarina Nobre, 2022. "Market Opportunities in Portugal for the Water-and-Waste Sector Using Sludge Gasification," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-16, September.
    10. Dinko Đurđević & Saša Žiković & Paolo Blecich, 2022. "Sustainable Sewage Sludge Management Technologies Selection Based on Techno-Economic-Environmental Criteria: Case Study of Croatia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-23, May.
    11. Pecchi, Matteo & Baratieri, Marco, 2019. "Coupling anaerobic digestion with gasification, pyrolysis or hydrothermal carbonization: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 462-475.
    12. Dong, Lei & Tao, Junyu & Zhang, Zhaoling & Yan, Beibei & Cheng, Zhanjun & Chen, Guanyi, 2021. "Energy utilization and disposal of herb residue by an integrated energy conversion system: A pilot scale study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PB).
    13. Fazil, A. & Kumar, Sandeep & Mahajani, Sanjay M., 2022. "Downdraft co-gasification of high ash biomass and plastics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    14. Ascher, Simon & Watson, Ian & Wang, Xiaonan & You, Siming, 2019. "Township-based bioenergy systems for distributed energy supply and efficient household waste re-utilisation: Techno-economic and environmental feasibility," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 455-467.
    15. Beatriz Alvez-Tovar & Paulo Sergio Scalize & Giovanny Angiolillo-Rodríguez & Antonio Albuquerque & Malorie Ndemengane Ebang & Tatianne Ferreira de Oliveira, 2025. "Agro-Industrial Waste Upcycling into Activated Carbons: A Sustainable Approach for Dye Removal and Wastewater Treatment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, February.
    16. Casas-Ledón, Yannay & Flores, Mauricio & Jiménez, Romel & Ronsse, Frederik & Dewulf, Jo & Arteaga-Pérez, Luis E., 2019. "On the environmental and economic issues associated with the forestry residues-to-heat and electricity route in Chile: Sawdust gasification as a case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 763-776.
    17. Ziółkowski, Paweł & Badur, Janusz & Pawlak- Kruczek, Halina & Stasiak, Kamil & Amiri, Milad & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Krochmalny, Krystian & Mularski, Jakub & Madejski, Paweł & Mikielewicz, Dariusz, 2022. "Mathematical modelling of gasification process of sewage sludge in reactor of negative CO2 emission power plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    18. Lui, Jade & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Tsang, Daniel C.W. & You, Siming, 2020. "A critical review on the principles, applications, and challenges of waste-to-hydrogen technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    19. Fang, Yi & Paul, Manosh C. & Varjani, Sunita & Li, Xian & Park, Young-Kwon & You, Siming, 2021. "Concentrated solar thermochemical gasification of biomass: Principles, applications, and development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    20. Zhang, Yaning & Ke, Cunfeng & Fu, Wenming & Cui, Yunlei & Rehan, Mirza Abdullah & Li, Bingxi, 2020. "Simulation of microwave-assisted gasification of biomass: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 488-496.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:997-:d:1577496. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.