Estudo da modelagem da adsorção em batelada do fármaco nimesulida presente em solução aquosa utilizando carvão ativado como adsorvente

Abstract

The production and consumption of drugs increases year after year due to the emergence of new technologies and studies bringing new drug formulations for the most diverse pathologies. These drugs are not completely digested by the body, most commonly wastewater, where conventional treatment is not enough to remove these compounds, which pass almost unchanged through the process. Thus, adsorption is a process that has been shown to be very efficient for the removal of contaminants present in aqueous solutions. Adsorption is a phenomenon in which components of a fluid phase are placed in contact with a solid and in this way the contaminant molecules penetrate the surface of the adsorbent and are retained in its pores. One way to identify parameters that are not experimentally identified is mathematical modeling and numerical simulation. Therefore, this work aimed to develop the study of the mathematical modeling of the adsorption process in a batch system for the removal of the drug nimesulide present in solutions using activated charcoal, aiming at estimating the global coefficient of mass transfer and the porosity of the bed of solids. The methodology consisted of developing a mathematical model that allowed estimating the global coefficient that proposes to group the mass transfer mechanisms involved in the process, thus developing equations for the liquid and solid phase of the process and thus obtaining the model solution through numerical integration in a routine built in MatLab mode and carry out the study of the parametric sensitivity for this variable and for the porosity of the bed of solids. The study of mathematical modeling was presented effectively for the adsorption operation. The mass transfer coefficient was determined from the approximation of the simulation to the experimental data, having as the best fit the value of 1.60x10-13 g/cm3.s and the porosity found was 0.9874. With the study of the parametric sensitivity analysis, it was possible to identify that the porosity of the bed of solids and the global coefficient of mass transfer have an influence linked to the results of the adsorption kinetics. Thus, with the effectiveness of the model to describe the adsorption, it becomes possible to study the adsorption of several contaminants using other adsorbents as well.