ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sustainable activated carbon obtained as a by-product of the sugar and alcohol industry for removal of amoxicillin from aqueous solution Juliana Schultz 1 • Gino Capobianco 2 • Paulo Apolina ´rio da Silva Veiga 1 • Mayara Regina Fornari 1 • Ariana Rodrigues Antonangelo 1 • Sergio Mazurek Tebcherani 2 • Antonio Salvio Mangrich 1,3 • Sidnei Antonio Pianaro 2 1 Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Parana ´, Curitiba, Brazil 2 Department of Materials Engineering, State University of Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa, Brazil 3 National Institute of Science and Technology-Energy and Environmental, Salvador, Brazil Received: 27 January 2020 / Revised: 29 May 2020 / Accepted: 7 June 2020 Ó The Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science of the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University 2020 Abstract The alcohol and sugar industry in Brazil uses a feedstock for sucrose extraction, resulting in waste pro- duction, one of them being the sugarcane bagasse. A pos- sible relocation for the use of this residue, produced in millions of tons annually, would be its use in the produc- tion of carbonaceous materials, such as activated carbon (AC). The purpose of this study was the production of activated carbon using a faster, simpler and more efficient process with low energy requirements and chemical reagents to obtain a material with a high surface area. The AC samples were prepared by chemical activation with ZnCl 2 and carbonization at 600 °C in an oxygen-limiting atmosphere. The average specific surface area of the samples, estimated by the BET method, was 1544 m 2 g -1 and the average pore size was 2.6 nm. The surface mor- phologies of the ACs were characterized using SEM analysis, which showed that the surfaces were irregular, with cracks, pores. The solids were also characterized by FTIR, presenting mainly stretching bands corresponding to O–H, C–O, and C=C groups. EPR analysis showed a res- onance line characteristic of an organic free radical with g * 2.0031, which is typical of free radicals centered on carbon atoms. The material efficiency for removal of aro- matic organic pollutants was evaluated in continuous-flow adsorption tests with the antibiotic amoxicillin. The method provided very satisfactory results, reducing the concentration of the antibiotic from an initial value of 1.37 9 10 -3 mol L -1 to about 3.5 9 10 -8 mol L -1 . The concentration of the antibiotic in water, after adsorption, was therefore reduced by four to five orders of magnitude, confirming the potential application of the materials pre- pared in this work for the removal of antibiotics residues from the environment. Keywords Sugarcane bagasse  Agro-industrial waste  Continuous-flow adsorption  Environmental contaminants 1 Introduction Brazil has a major potential source of biomass waste, which mainly originates from food industries (sugarcane bagasse, rice husks, orange peel, coconut shells, timber residues, and cashew nut wastes), among others (Welfle 2017). Most of these wastes have no applications in the industries generating them, and only a small fraction is used for energy production. According to the National Electric Energy Agency, Brazil possesses 557 thermal power plants fed with biomass, which generate an output of ca. 14.6 million kilowatts (kW) (ANEEL 2018). Despite this, most wasted biomass is not used industrially, largely because these residues are not suitable for application in natura. Consequently, their accumulation can lead to environmental problems, such as increased volumes in landfill sites, as well as significant risks to human health (Doumer et al. 2015; Tripathi et al. 2019). Most sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) biomass waste is used for energy production, although it could also be employed in the & Juliana Schultz julianaschultz@yahoo.com.br 123 Energ. Ecol. Environ. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-020-00173-3