Removal of haloethers, trihalomethanes and haloketones from water using Moringa oleifera seeds

Moringa oleifera seed was used as a biosorbent for the removal of water treatment disinfection by-products, haloethers, trihalomethanes and haloketones from water samples. M. oleifera seed has polar functional groups such as O–H, C=O, C–N and others which facilitate the extraction of these disinfection by-products. Experiments were conducted in batch and fixed bed column modes. Using batch mode, different parameters were optimized such as M. oleifera seed dosage, sample pH, contact time and agitation speed. The effect of the thickness layer and flow rate were also studied using the fixed bed mode. Maximum adsorption occurs using the batch mode with removal efficiencies of 120.5, 114 and 111.5 mg/g for haloethers, trihalomethanes and haloketones, respectively. Adsorption equilibrium followed Langmuir model, and the kinetic data obeyed the pseudo-second-order model, revealing that the M. oleifera seed had higher adsorption capacity than other reported sorbents. Shorter removal time with higher adsorption capacity of disinfection by-products by M. oleifera seed suggests that this material was effective for water treatment, in dealing with the removal of the disinfection by-products considered.