(35b) Adsorption of Ibuprofen Using Activated Carbon Obtained from Tire Waste

The management of urban solid waste offers possibilities to implement environmental alternatives
that integrate the protection of hydric resources and serves as raw material to generate solutions
in the energy industry.

This study explores how to get activated carbon from used tires, becoming a viable alternative
since only in Bogotá 3 million tires are thrown away per year, which constitutes a vector of
rodents, insects, fire risks, and a disease focus. Two types of activated carbon from the used tires
were prepared, one through physical activation with nitrogen (N2), and another by chemical
activation with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) using a 3:1 ratio (active agent/carbon) in both of them.
The absorbent was tested in the removal of a probe molecule belonging to the CCL4 list.

The raw material was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), proximal and elemental
analysis, and infrared analysis with Fourier transform (FTIR). For the obtained activated carbon
textural characterization was made to determine surface area, volume and pore distribution, the
isoelectric point was quantified also.
These carbons were used to remove ibuprofen from the aqueous solutions of 20, 50 and 80 mg/L
by varying the temperature and thus establishing the absorption capacity of the carbons for this
contaminant.
The results demonstrate that the chemically activated carbon has a higher superficial area than
the obtained by physical activation, the amount of pollutant removed is determined for gas
chromatography with a mass spectrometer.