Multi-functional core-shell pomegranate peel amended alginate beads for phenol decontamination and bio-hydrogen production: Synthesis, characterization, and kinetics investigation

Phenolic compounds discharged from different industries comprise a great threatening to environmental system and human health. They are toxic even at a low concentration (<1.0 mu g/L). Adsorption is attractive scenario for successful removal of phenolic compounds from wastewater. Herein, a facile strategy was employed to fabricate amended alginate beads based on pomegranate peel. The constructed beads were intensively scrutinized, and introduced for the remediation of phenol from wastewater under various operational parameters of pHi (e.g., 2.1-10.7), adsorbent dose (e.g., 0.5 - 5.0 g L-1), initial phenol concentrations (e.g., 10.0 - 500.0 mg L-1), and residence time (e.g., 5.0 - 270.0 min). Consequently, the efficacy of bio-hydrogen production via dark fermentative process of co-substrate metabolism of phenol and glucose in presence of beads was systematically inspected. Our findings revealed that the maximum adsorption capacity of beads was 119.048 mg g-1 at pH 7.2. Comfortingly, the fitting isotherms experiments expounded that the adsorption of phenol by beads conformed to the Langmuir model. The kinetics modelling findings matched with pseudo-second-order model. Otherwise, the as-prepared beads have remarkably improved anaerobic co-substrate fermentation process of glucose (syner-gism) and phenol removal efficiency (91.1-97.0%), with bio-hydrogen yield of 0.35 up to 2.65 mol-H2 mol- 1 glucose. Overall, the present study illustrates an ample perspective of natural resources feasibility as a futuristic rational platform for wastewater decontamination and bio-hydrogen production.