Pharmaceutical pollutants such as tetracycline (TC) are environmentally dangerous because of their persistence in aquatic
bodies. This work introduces a unique and sustainable treatment approach by combining modified natural clay (MC)
adsorption with controlled thermolysis regeneration to eliminate TC from wastewater in a reusable system. Batch adsorption
experiments revealed an optimum TC removal of 93% at pH 3.5, 25 °C, and 40 mg/L TC, with an equilibrium time of 45 min.
Adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.9713), indicating monolayer adsorption with a capacity of 85.54 mg/g,
whereas kinetic modeling was pseudo-second order, suggesting chemisorption. The integration of thermolysis at 550 °C
for 120 min not only decomposed TC into CO2
and H2O
but also preserved the structural integrity of the MC for reuse over
five cycles. Continuous-flow column trials corroborated the effectiveness of the approach under real conditions in practical
applications. Structural characterization techniques (XRD, SEM, TGA, and FT-IR) were used to validate the thermal stability,
porous structure, and high adsorption capacity of MC. This adsorption‒thermolysis approach with combined adsorption
presents an economically viable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional water treatment processes, which
effectively destroys secondary waste and facilitates sustainable pollutant removal. This closed-loop, eco-friendly method not
only eliminates secondary waste but also demonstrates scalable potential for industrial wastewater treatment

Title

Applied Water Science

Publisher

Springer Nature

Publisher Country

Germany

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

5.7

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

15

Year

2025

Pages

26