Obtención de celulosa a partir de raquis de banano aplicado a la remoción de plomo y cadmio en solución acuosa.

Abstract

Water pollution worldwide continues to grow, practically all companies producing goods generate pollutants as unwanted byproducts. More than 80% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged without treatment, thus contaminating rivers, lakes and different coastal areas. For their removal, different methods have been evaluated and specifically in the adsorption process different bio-absorbent materials have been used, of which an agricultural waste produced in the coastal zone of the country has been worked on. The objective of this work was to obtain cellulose from one of the most abundant agricultural wastes in Ecuador, such as banana rachis and apply it to the separation of cadmium (Cd2+) and lead (Pb2+). The cultivation of banana is one of the main economic activities within the province of El Oro. The banana, pseudostem and leaf rachis are the waste that is generated post-harvest, since the farmer only uses the fruit (banana), and the rest is simply thrown to the ground in the same banana plantations. On the other hand, the water sources of our country are being affected by the contamination of heavy metals, therefore different investigations have been made trying to take advantage of the own resources that are available, in this case rachis of banana that has been used as a bioadsorbent of metals in water, since its functional groups help the adsorption of heavy metals due to the components that the rachis possesses such as: cellulose, lignin and holocellulose, for which the obtaining, modification and application of biomaterials such as Cellulose in adsorption processes for water decontamination, is a subject of growing scientific interest. Prior to obtaining the cellulose, the unprocessed material (rachis) was collected in a local farm, then chopped, washed with distilled water, dried in an oven at 65 ° C for 24 hours, after its grinding process up to 250 microns, thus obtaining the pure banana rachis. To obtain the cellulosic material, the Kraft or pulping method was used, in which an acid hydrolysis was carried out consisting of using 20 g of the processed material, followed by an alkaline extraction with 10% NaOH (m / v), followed by its washing and drying in the oven, then acid hydrolysis was carried out with H2SO4, chlorination was carried out with 3.5% NaClO, then washing was carried out, followed by an alkaline extraction of 20% NaOH, followed by its respective washing and was finalized with a whitening through the NaClO at 0.5% and its respective drying.