OBTENCIÓN DE UN SURFACTANTE A PARTIR DE BIOMASA RESIDUAL DE Agave durangensis Y SU APLICACIÓN EN LA REMOCIÓN DE ARSÉNICO POR LA TÉCNICA DE AGLOMERACIÓN ESFÉRICA

Abstract

The water quality is essential in the socioeconomic ambit of the countries. This may be affected by natural and anthropogenic activities. Adverse effects to ecosystems and human health may occur as a result of the decrease of its quality, for the occurrence of chemical, physical or biological contaminants. The hidroarsenisismo, is a disease due to chronic consumption of water with high concentrations of arsenic, which can be lethal. Conventional technologies for arsenic removal, usually high inversion or operation costs and in some cases come to generate considerable volumes of toxic sludge and low efficiencies of removal. Spherical agglomeration technique has been studied, with satisfactory results in the removal of heavy metals in industrial waste water. This technique consists of four stages: precipitation, hidrofobización, humidification and agglomeration, which are a set of operations and physico-chemical processes that have demonstrated high efficiencies of removal for the studied heavy metals. This work studied the possibility of removing arsenic from samples of underground water utilized for drinking water. Stages of precipitation-adsorption and hydrophobization were investigated priority, using coagulants and commercial and natural surfactants agents respectively. Was obtained a biosurfactant of an extract from leaf tissue of Agave durangensis, which is a waste in the process of elaboration of mescal and were identified four type of saponins: agavoside A, agavoside B and H agavoside. Results show removal of 99.83% in models of water and 99.99% in natural waters with the biosurfactant. The above shows the feasibility of the removal of arsenic by the TAE, using as hidrofobizante a saponin extract of leaf tissue of Agave durangensis.