Polyethylenimine-coated biomass-chitosan composite fibers for recovery of ruthenium from industrial effluents: Effects of chitosan molecular weight and drying method

Sustainable recovery of precious metal ions from secondary sources is of high interest due to their limited availability, high demand, and high cost. The objective of this study was to establish manufacturing conditions of acid-stable and high-performance composite fibers and to apply the fibers for recovery of ruthenium from industrial effluents generated from acetic acid making Cativa™ process. The polyethylenimine-coated onto biomass-chitosan composite fibers (PBCFs) were prepared by different methods. The molecular weight of chitosan and drying methods were selected major factors affecting the stability and adsorption performance of PBCFs. The drying method largely affects the stability and adsorption performance, while the effect of molecular weight was not significant. After adsorption, Ru was successfully recovered as a solid state by incineration of the Ru-loaded PBCFs. The present study provided optimized conditions for fabricating stable and high-performance PBCFs able to be used for recovery of Ru through the adsorption-incineration technique.