Green Remediation of Pollutions Utilizing Modified Rice Husk by Steam Explosion and Acid Treatment

The effect of different treatments on the depollution properties of rice husk to improve its biosorption efficiency has been investigated. The dye and heavy metal removal of treated rice husk samples were studied using methylene blue and Cu2+ as pollutant indicators. Moreover, olive oil has been used for oil removal performance tests. Although the adsorption investigation revealed that dye and Cu2+ removal is the highest using raw rice husk and steam-explosion acid-treated rice husk, respectively, steam-explosion rice husk presents more sustainability considering its cost and performance in both pollutant environments, while its oil removal capacity is outstanding compared to the raw rice husk too. Then, steam-explosion rice husks can be considered low-cost biosorbent materials for wastewater treatment that do not require high initial investments. The samples were characterized by FTIR, SEM, and EDX to compare the effect of composition and morphology on their depollution properties. The variety of functional groups present in treated rice husk based on the FTIR results improves the adsorption of MB and Cu2+.