Preparation of cationized starch from food industry waste biomass and its utilization in sulfate removal from aqueous solution

In this work, untreated starch-rich potato peel waste was used as a starting material in preparation of cationized starch (CS)1 in water solution with 2-chloro-3-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (CHPTAC) as the cationization reagent. The impact of various factors (activation time, temperature, reaction time, the amount of CHPTAC and NaOH) on the degree of substitution (DS) of CS was studied by using experimental design. The DS values were determined by 1H NMR. The highest DS (0.40) was obtained when the reaction time was 8 h, temperature 30 °C, the molar ratio of CHPTAC and NaOH to AGU 3 and 3.75, respectively. The prepared CS was successfully used to remove sulfate ions from an aqueous solution with ultrafiltration technique. Sulfate is a major pollutant of water bodies so development of efficient techniques for its removal is detrimental. The removal of sulfate in study was 74% at best.