Efficient removal of Lambda-cyhalothrin from simulated water using Co-composted-biochar: A modern day substituent of conventional bioadsorbent
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Lambda-cyhalothrin, a type II pyrethroid, is widely employed as an outdoor and indoor insect repellent due to its
target specificity and moderate toxicity. However, its extensive use elevated its residual concentration to sig
nificant detectable levels in waterbodies, making it an immediate problem. Furthermore, as a lipophile, its
accumulation in multicellular organisms has resulted in irreversible acute and chronic effects on numerous
physiochemical and biological activities. Thus, to address its removal as a pollutant from waterbodies, bio-
adsorbents are considered a cost-effective and environmentally sound cleanup method. Modern day bio-
adsorbents like co-composted-biochar, because of their potential adsorption capability rather than the conven
tional ones, may become a commonly used remediation tool. Therefore, this study aims at producing co-
composted-biochar (COMBI) by combining kitchen-derived putrescible waste and biochar to effectively
remove Lambda-cyhalothrin (LC) from spiked up water. It has been further analysed for its physico-chemical
characteristics using instrumentation such as BET, SEM-EDS and FTIR. The results showed that biochar and
COMBI had a much greater surface area (2.174 m
2
/g-1.718 m
2
/g) and pore diameters (3.648 nm–3.628 nm) than
the compost sample. Simultaneously, the response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimise the
removal efficiency of COMBI against LC. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was developed with an experimental
layout to perform tests for determining the effects of four basic parameters i.e. pH, contact time (minute),
adsorbate concentration (g/l) and adsorbent dose (g) on (%) removal of LC. It was noted that variation among
removal efficiencies for the experimental runs ranges between 94.8% and 99.9%, within the majority attaining
an efficiency of greater than 95%. During the experiments, the ideal conditions were found to be as pH 2 in a
contact time of 140 min and a dose of adsorbent 0.01 g. Thus, COMBI could be a promising and potential
candidate for the elimination of LC.