Ecofriendly Technique for the Treatment of Water Contaminated with Stable and Radioactive Cobalt Through an Adsorption Process Using Dried Prickly Pear Residues

With increasing industrial progress, radioactive and non-radioactive isotopes are a major environmental concern. Wastewaters containing such contaminants, extensively released from chemical and nuclear industries enter excessively into food chains resulting in serious health impairments in living systems. Among various treatment techniques, adsorption is the most attractive method as it employs eco-friendly, sustainable and cost-effective biomaterials. Agro-wastes coming from prickly pear were used after drying and sieving as an adsorbent to remediate stable and radioisotope of cobalt from contaminated aqueous medium. Batch experiments were performed under different experimental conditions to investigate the effect of bio-sorbent dose, Co (concentration and radioactivity), temperature, pH and contact time. More than 70% removal of Co2+ (100 ppm) was reached by using 0.25g dried prickly pear residues and a stirring rate of 100 rpm.