Screening of Low Cost Adsorbents for Removal of Atrazine from Water

Four adsorbents (wood charcoal, fly ash, rice bran and wheat bran) were examined for removal of atrazine from water. Column elution technique was used to determine the efficacy of all the adsorbents of organic, inorganic and biosorbent categories. Wood charcoal was found to be the most effective having 75.3–88.1% removal efficiency at 5–10 μg mL⁻¹ concentration. The removal efficiencies of fly ash, rice bran and wheat bran were e7.8 8nd d8.6%, 67.6 and 62.2%, 46.8 and 38.7% at 5 and 10 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The order of removal efficiency of all the adsorbents was: Wood charcoal > Fly ash > Rice bran > Wheat bran.