Efficient Ultrasound-Assisted Rifampicin Removal Using Cu(BDC)@Wool Biocomposite in Batch Adsorption Column and Fixed Bed

In the present paper, a Cu(BDC) metal–organic framework (MOF) is chemically attached to wool via an in-situ synthesizing method. The synthesized novel biocomposite (Cu(BDC)@Wool) was applied as an easily applicable biocomposite to the effective removal of Rifampicin (RIF) from wastewater. Batch adsorption experiments were performed, and the optimum conditions of RIF adsorption (99.3%) were found to be approximately at 25 ppm initial concentration, 1 mg adsorbent, pH 2, time without ultrasonic = 30 min, and time with ultrasonic = 10 which were determined by a response surface methodology. The results of fixed bed experiments showed that better RIF removal was achieved with a low inlet RIF concentration, high adsorbent bed height, and low influent flow rate. The performance of FBAC was maximum (tb = 769, te = 1221 min; %A = 60.6%) at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, adsorbent bed height of 7.5 mm, and RIF of 30 ppm. The study of mathematical models shows that the Clark model has the highest correlation with the experimental data. Therefore, the novelty of this work is that ultrasound-assisted removal reduces the equilibration time and can be economically viable for removing RIF from wastewater.