Remediation of Cd2+ in aqueous systems by alkali-modified (Ca) biochar and quantitative analysis of its mechanism

Co-pyrolysis of straw and Ca(OH) 2 is a feasible modification method to improve the adsorption capacity of biochar for Cd. However, few studies have quantitatively analyzed the contribution of different adsorption mechanisms of alkali-modified biochar. In this study, the alkali-modified (Ca) biochar were prepared by co-pyrolyzing lime (Ca(OH) 2 ) and soybean straw (SBB) or rape straw (RSB) at 450 °C. The adsorption mechanism was investigated by a series of experiments and was provided by quantitative analysis. The maximum adsorption capacities of Cd 2+ by Ca-SBB and Ca-RSB were calculated to be 78.49 mg g −1 and 49.96 mg g −1 , which were 1.56 and 1.48 times higher than SBB (50.40 mg g −1 ) and RSB (33.79 mg g −1 ), respectively. Compared with the original biochar (SBB, RSB), alkali-modified biochar (Ca-SBB and Ca-RSB) were found to have faster adsorption kinetics and lower desorption efficiencies. The mechanism study indicated that Ca(OH) 2 modification effectively enhanced the contribution of ion exchange and decreased the contribution of functional groups complexation. After Ca(OH) 2 modification, precipitation and ion exchange mechanisms dominated Cd 2   +   absorption on Ca-SBB, accounting for 49.85% and 34.94% of the total adsorption, respectively. Similarily ion exchange and precipitation were the main adsorption mechanism on Ca-RSB, accounting however for 61.91% and 18.47% of total adsorption, respectively. These results suggested that alkali-modified biochar has great potential to adsorp cadmium in wastewater.