Red mud (an aluminium industry waste) has received wide attention as an effective adsorbent for water pollution control, showing significant adsorption potential for the removal of various aquatic ...pollutants. In this review, an extensive list of red‐mud‐based adsorbents has been compiled and their adsorption capacities (maximum uptake value of the adsorbent for the pollutant or adsorbate being removed) for various aquatic pollutants (metal ions, dyes, phenolic compounds, inorganic anions) are presented. The review provides a summary of recent information obtained using batch studies and deals with the adsorption mechanisms involved. It is evident from the literature survey that red mud has been found to be efficient for the removal of various aquatic pollutants, especially arsenic and phosphate. However, there is still a need to investigate the practical utility of these adsorbents on a commercial scale.
Different advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) were applied to the treatment of a real cotton-textile dyeing wastewater as a pre-oxidation step to enhance the biodegradability of the recalcitrant ...compounds, which can be further oxidized using a biological process. Tests were conducted on a lab-scale prototype using artificial solar radiation and at pilot scale with compound parabolic collectors using natural solar radiation. The cotton-textile dyeing wastewater presents a lilac color, with a maximum absorbance peak at 641 nm, alkaline pH (pH = 8.2), moderate organic content (DOC = 152 mg C L⁻¹, COD = 684 mg O₂ L⁻¹) and low-moderate biodegradability (40 % after 28 days in Zahn–Wellens test). All the tested processes contributed to an effective decolorization and mineralization, but the most efficient process was the solar-photo-Fenton with an optimum catalyst concentration of 60 mg Fe²⁺ L⁻¹, leading to 98.5 % decolorization and 85.5 % mineralization after less than 0.1 and 5.8 kJUV L⁻¹, respectively. In order to achieve a final wastewater with a COD below 250 mg O₂ L⁻¹ (discharge limit into water bodies imposed by the Portuguese Legislation-Portaria no. 423/97 of 25 June 1997), considering the combination of a solar-photo-Fenton reaction with a biological process, the phototreatment energy required is 0.5 kJUV L⁻¹, consuming 7.5 mM hydrogen peroxide, resulting in 58.4 % of mineralization Formula: see text
This study aims to investigate the applicability of a hybrid electrochemical sensor composed of cork and graphite (Gr) for detecting caffeine in aqueous solutions. Raw cork (RAC) and regranulated ...cork (RGC, obtained by thermal treatment of RAC with steam at 380 °C) were tested as modifiers. The results clearly showed that the cork-graphite sensors, GrRAC and GrRGC, exhibited a linear response over a wide range of caffeine concentration (5-1000 µM), with R
of 0.99 and 0.98, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD), estimated at 2.9 and 6.1 µM for GrRAC and GrRGC, suggest greater sensitivity and reproducibility than the unmodified conventional graphite sensor. The low-cost cork-graphite sensors were successfully applied in the determination of caffeine in soft drinks and pharmaceutical formulations, presenting well-defined current signals when analyzing real samples. When comparing electrochemical determinations and high performance liquid chromatography measurements, no significant differences were observed (mean accuracy 3.0%), highlighting the potential use of these sensors to determine caffeine in different samples.
This study focuses on the degradation of pharmaceuticals from a municipal wastewater after secondary treatment by applying various advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and electrochemical AOPs (EAOPs) ...like UVC, H2O2/UVC, anodic oxidation (AO), AO with electrogenerated H2O2 (AO-H2O2), AO-H2O2/UVC and photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) using either UVC radiation (PEF-UVC) or UVA radiation (PEF-UVA). The municipal wastewater after secondary treatment was spiked with 5.0 mg L−1 of trimethoprim (TMP) antibiotic. The efficiency of processes to remove TMP followed the order UVC < AO-H2O2 < PEF-UVA << AO ≈ PEF-UVC < AO-H2O2/UVC < PEF-UVA (pH = 2.8) < H2O2/UVC ≈ PEF-UVC (pH = 2.8), using neutral pH, except when identified. While the UVC radiation alone led to a very low TMP removal, the H2O2/UVC process promoted a very high TMP degradation due to the production of hydroxyl radicals (OH) by H2O2 cleavage. In the AO-H2O2/UVC process, the electrogeneration of H2O2 can avoid the risks associated with the transportation, storage and manipulation of this oxidant and, furthermore, OH at the anode surface are also formed. Nevertheless, low contents of H2O2 were detected mainly at the beginning of the reaction, leading to a lower initial reaction rate when compared with the H2O2/UVC system. In the PEF-UVC, the addition of iron at neutral pH led to the visible formation of insoluble iron oxides that can filter the light. At pH 2.8, the iron remained dissolved, thereby promoting the Fenton's reaction and increasing the organics removal. The UVA-driven processes showed limited efficiency when compared with those using UVC light. For all processes with H2O2 electrogeneration, the active chlorine species can be scavenged by the H2O2, diminishing the efficiency of the processes. This can explain the lower efficiency of AO-H2O2 when compared with AO. Moreover, the degradation of the MWWTP effluent spiked with 18 pharmaceuticals in μg L−1 during AO process was assessed as well as the influence of the following operational variables on the process efficiency: (i) H2O2 concentration on H2O2/UVC, (ii) current density on AO, AO-H2O2, AO-H2O2/UVC, PEF-UVC and PEF-UVA, and (iii) pH on PEF-UVA.
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•First study on AO-H2O2, AO-H2O2/UVC, PEF-UVC and PEF-UVA to degrade a MWWTP effluent.•Unprecedented comparison of chemical and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes.•Trimethoprim removal: PEF-UVC ≈ H2O2/UVC > PEF-UVA > AO-H2O2/UVC > AO > AO-H2O2 > UVC.•Assessment of pharmaceuticals removal at mg L−1 and μg L−1 levels.•Assessment of the effect of H2O2 content, current density and pH on various processes.
Nitrogen Removal from Landfill Leachate by Microalgae Pereira, Sérgio F L; Gonçalves, Ana L; Moreira, Francisca C ...
International journal of molecular sciences,
11/2016, Letnik:
17, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Landfill leachates result from the degradation of solid residues in sanitary landfills, thus presenting a high variability in terms of composition. Normally, these effluents are characterized by high ...ammoniacal-nitrogen (N-NH₄⁺) concentrations, high chemical oxygen demands and low phosphorus concentrations. The development of effective treatment strategies becomes difficult, posing a serious problem to the environment. Phycoremediation appears to be a suitable alternative for the treatment of landfill leachates. In this study, the potential of
for biomass production and nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) removal from different compositions of a landfill leachate was evaluated. Since microalgae also require phosphorus for their growth, different loads of this nutrient were evaluated, giving the following N:P ratios: 12:1, 23:1 and 35:1. The results have shown that
was able to grow in the different leachate compositions assessed. However, microalgal growth was higher in the cultures presenting the lowest N-NH₄⁺ concentration. In terms of nutrients uptake, an effective removal of N-NH₄⁺ and phosphorus was observed in all the experiments, especially in those supplied with phosphorus. Nevertheless, N-NO₃
removal was considered almost negligible. These promising results constitute important findings in the development of a bioremediation technology for the treatment of landfill leachates.
A tube-in-tube membrane reactor, with radial addition of hydrogen peroxide, was used for the oxidation of four pharmaceuticals, paracetamol (PCT), furosemide (FRS), nimesulide (NMD), and diazepam ...(DZP), in a continuous-mode operation, using photochemical and photocatalytic processes, driven by UVA or UVC photons. This reactor allows a controlled titration of small H2O2 doses (inside-out mode) to the catalyst particles immobilized in the membrane shell side and to the annular space between the membrane inner tubing and the concentric outer quartz tubing, where water to be treated flows. Tests were performed using synthetic (SWW) and real (urban wastewater after secondary treatment) (UWW) matrices, both spiked with the pharmaceutical mix solution (200 μg L−1 of each). The photochemical and photocatalytic oxidation efficiency was evaluated as a function of H2O2 dose (5–20 mg L−1), oxidant injection mode (radial permeation vs injection upstream from the reactor inlet), light source (UVA vs UVC lamps) and aqueous matrix (synthetic vs real matrix). At steady-state regime, the UVC/H2O2/TiO2 system, with radial H2O2 addition (20 mg L−1), showed the highest pharmaceuticals removal percentage, PCT (27.4%), FRS (35.0%), NMD (24.2%) and DZP (30.0%) in SWW. A substantial decrease in pharmaceuticals elimination was observed for UWW (PCT - 11.5%, FRS - 20.3%, NMD - 8.2% and DZP - 12.6%), in comparison with the SWW matrix. Finally, twelve transformation products (TPs) were identified; most of them showed in their structures hydroxylation in aromatic moiety; all TPs chemical structures were evaluated by BIOWIN software indicating that the TPs are non-biodegradables.
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•Tube-in-tube membrane photocatalytic reactor for pharmaceuticals mix oxidation•Radial addition of H2O2 benefits the ability to remove the pharmaceuticals mix.•High oxidant concentrations near catalyst surface enhance TiO2-H2O2 interaction.•Helical motion of the fluid stream enhances interfacial mass transfer.•Transformation products identified with non-biodegradable characteristics.
Cow bone char was investigated as sorbent for the defluoridation of aqueous solutions. The cow bone char was characterized in terms of its morphology, chemical composition, and functional groups ...present on the bone char surface using different analytical techniques: SEM, EDS, N
2
-BET method, and FTIR. Batch equilibrium studies were performed for the bone chars prepared using different procedures. The highest sorption capacities for fluoride were obtained for the acid washed (
q
= 6.2 ± 0.5 mg/g) and Al-doped (
q
= 6.4 ± 0.3 mg/g) bone chars. Langmuir and Freundlich models fitted well the equilibrium sorption data. Fluoride removal rate in batch system is fast in the first 5 h, decreasing after this time until achieving equilibrium due to pore diffusion. The presence of carbonate and bicarbonate ions in the aqueous solution contributes to a decrease of the fluoride sorption capacity of the bone char by 79 and 31 %, respectively. Regeneration of the F-loaded bone char using 0.5 M NaOH solution leads to a sorption capacity for fluoride of 3.1 mg/g in the second loading cycle. Fluoride breakthrough curve obtained in a fixed-bed column presents an asymmetrical
S
-shaped form, with a slow approach of
C
/
C
0
→ 1.0 due to pore diffusion phenomena. Considering the guideline value for drinking water of 1.5 mg F
−
/L, as recommended by World Health Organization, the service cycle for fluoride removal was of 71.0 h (F
−
feed
∼ 9 mg/L; flow rate = 1 mL/min;
m
sorbent
= 12.6 g). A mass transfer model considering the pore diffusion was able to satisfactorily describe the experimental data obtained in batch and continuous systems.
Literature describes a kinetic mineralization profile for most of acrylic-textile dyeing wastewaters using a photo-Fenton reaction characterized by a slow degradation process and high reactants ...consumption. This work tries to elucidate that the slow decay on DOC concentration is associated with the formation of stable complexes between Fe3+ and textile auxiliary products, limiting the photoreduction of Fe3+. This work also evaluates the enhancement of a solar photo-Fenton reaction through the use of different ferric-organic ligands applied to the treatment of a simulated acrylic-textile dyeing wastewater, as a pre-oxidation step to enhance its biodegradability. The photo-Fenton reaction was negatively affected by two dyeing auxiliary products: i) Sera® Tard A-AS, a surfactant mainly composed of alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride and ii) Sera® Sperse M-IW, a dispersing agent composed of polyglycol solvents. The catalytic activity of the organic ligands toward the ferrous-catalysed system followed this order: Fe(III)-Oxalate > Fe(III)-Citrate > Fe(III)-EDDS, and all were better than the traditional photo-Fenton reaction. Different design parameters such as iron concentration, pH, temperature, flow conditions, UV irradiance and H2O2 addition strategy and dose were evaluated. The ferrioxalate induced photo-Fenton process presented the best results, achieving 87% mineralization after 9.3 kJUV L−1 and allowing to work until near neutral pH values. As expected, the biodegradability of the textile wastewater was significantly enhanced during the photo-Fenton treatment, achieving a value of 73%, consuming 32.4 mM of H2O2 and 5.7 kJUV L−1.
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•Fe3+ formed stable complexes with the organic pollutants of the textile wastewater.•The photo-Fenton reaction was enhanced through the use of ferric-organic ligands.•The PF with Fe(III)-oxalate or citrate showed similar mineralization profiles.•The best iron concentration must be selected taking into account the UV irradiance.•The PF efficiency depends on the photoreactor hydrodynamic conditions.
The removal of five selected pesticide compounds in a brackish model groundwater solution was examined using a bench scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system. It was found that the ...rejection rate of the pesticides in DCMD is mainly influenced by its properties. Compounds with low hydrophobic characteristics and low vapour pressure showed a high rejection rate (70–99%), whereas compounds with a high vapour pressure or high hydrophobicity (LogD) showed a reduced rejection (30–50%) at a water recovery of 75%. The influence of groundwater feed solution contents such as the presence of organics (humic acid) and inorganic ions (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl− and SO42−) as well as feed temperature (40, 55 and 70 °C) on the rejection of the pesticides in DCMD operation was also evaluated. The results showed that the presence of inorganic ions and organics in the feed solution influences the pesticides rejection in DCMD operation to a minor degree. In contrast, reduced rejection of pesticides with high vapour pressure was observed. A rapid small-scale column test (RSSCT) was carried out to study the removal of any remaining substances in the permeate by adsorption onto granular activated carbon (GAC). RSSCT showed promising performance of GAC as a post-treatment option.
The current study has proved the technical feasibility of including electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) in a multistage strategy for the remediation of a sanitary landfill leachate ...that embraced: (i) first biological treatment to remove the biodegradable organic fraction, oxidize ammonium and reduce alkalinity, (ii) coagulation of the bio-treated leachate to precipitate humic acids and particles, followed by separation of the clarified effluent, and (iii) oxidation of the resulting effluent by an EAOP to degrade the recalcitrant organic matter and increase its biodegradability so that a second biological process for removal of biodegradable organics and nitrogen content could be applied. The influence of current density on an UVA photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) process was firstly assessed. The oxidation ability of various EAOPs such as electro-Fenton (EF) with two distinct initial total dissolved iron concentrations (TDI0), PEF and solar PEF (SPEF) was further evaluated and these processes were compared with their analogous chemical ones. A detailed assessment of the two first treatment stages was made and the biodegradability enhancement during the SPEF process was determined by a Zahn–Wellens test to define the ideal organics oxidation state to stop the EAOP and apply the second biological treatment. The best current density was 200 mA cm−2 for a PEF process using a BDD anode, TDI0 of 60 mg L−1, pH 2.8 and 20 °C. The relative oxidation ability of EAOPs increased in the order EF with 12 mg TDI0 L−1 < EF with 60 mg TDI0 L−1 < PEF with 60 mg TDI0 L−1 ≤ SPEF with 60 mg TDI0 L−1, using the abovementioned conditions. While EF process was much superior to the Fenton one, the superiority of PEF over photo-Fenton was less evident and SPEF attained similar degradation to solar photo-Fenton. To provide a final dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of 163 mg L−1 to fulfill the discharge limits into the environment after a second biological process, 6.2 kJ L−1 UV energy and 36 kWh m−3 electrical energy were consumed using SPEF with a BDD anode at 200 mA cm−2, 60 mg TDI0 L−1, pH 2.8 and 20 °C.
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•First study of EAOPs with H2O2 electrogeneration for landfill leachate treatment.•Multistage treatment strategy: bio-process/coagulation/EAOP/bio-process.•EAOPs used for recalcitrant organics degradation and biodegradability enhancement.•Efficiency of EAOPs in the order EF < PEF ≤ SPEF.•Consumption of 6.2 kJ L−1 UV energy and 36 kWh m−3 electrical energy using SPEF.