Application of Biochar and Activated Carbon in Water Treatment

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2024 | Viewed by 2006

Special Issue Editor

College of Water Resource & Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Interests: water purification; wastewater treatment; materials synthesis; advanced oxidation process; emerging contaminants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater is extensively generated on a daily basis from domestic and industrial sources across the globe, posing several challenges, including water crises and environmental deterioration. Thus, sustainable wastewater treatment/disinfection methods are sought to counter this problem. On the other hand, wastewater contains many resources like organic matter, phosphorus, nitrogen, heavy metals, thermal energy, etc., and thus the reuse of wastewater resources is becoming more and more attractive. Biochar and activated carbon materials have bridged the gap between the demand for and supply of clean water and resources from wastewater, providing promising alternatives for wastewater treatment and resource recovery. However, biochar and activated carbon materials with unique physicochemical properties, good economic benefits, stable pollution removal ability, high resource recoveries, and environmental friendliness are still in high demand. This Special Issue focuses on the design, development, application, and impact of biochar and activated carbon materials for wastewater treatment and resource recovery. In view of this, this Special Issue will showcase studies on fundamental biochar and activated carbon materials related to wastewater treatment and resource recovery with an emphasis on scaling-up production and application.

Dr. Jun Li
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biochar and activated carbon materials
  • wastewater treatment
  • water purification
  • water resource recovery
  • water pollution control
  • sustainable water remediation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4097 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Remediation of Lead and Cadmium by the Co-System of Phosphate-Solubilizing Bacteria Immobilized on Goethite-Modified Biochar
by Gongduan Fan, Junhou Zhou, Xingfeng Cao, Wu You, Chen Lin, Jing Luo, Jianyong Zou, Kai-Qin Xu and Quanda Luo
Water 2024, 16(13), 1917; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16131917 - 5 Jul 2024
Viewed by 826
Abstract
Bioremediation has drawn widespread concern in passivating heavy metals, but the intense toxicity of heavy metals to biological cells limits the application of functional strains. Herein, goethite-modified biochar (GMB) was chosen as the carrier to immobilize phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) of strain L1 for [...] Read more.
Bioremediation has drawn widespread concern in passivating heavy metals, but the intense toxicity of heavy metals to biological cells limits the application of functional strains. Herein, goethite-modified biochar (GMB) was chosen as the carrier to immobilize phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) of strain L1 for lead and cadmium remediation. Batch experiments showed that the GMB-L1 possessed excellent adsorption performance with a maximum adsorption of 496.54 and 178.18 mg/g for Pb and Cd, respectively. Moreover, adding GMB-L1 in contaminated soil converted heavy metals (Pb and Cd) into more stable fractions and reduced TCLP-extracted heavy metal concentrations (73.24% of Pb and 57.25% of Cd). The GMB-L1 was proved to accomplish Pb and Cd remediation via the process of chemical precipitation, surface complexation, electrostatic attraction, and biomineralization, which was accompanied by the transformation of heavy metals into a more stable crystal structure, such as Pb5(PO4)3OH and Cd5(PO4)3OH. Therefore, the co-system of GMB and strain L1 could be regarded as a prospective option for efficiently remedying environmental heavy metal pollution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Biochar and Activated Carbon in Water Treatment)
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18 pages, 3128 KiB  
Article
Activation of Peroxymonosulfate by P-Doped Cow Manure Biochar for Enhancing Degradation of 17β-Estradiol
by Wu You, Gongduan Fan, Junhou Zhou, Ruiyu Lin, Xingfeng Cao, Yiqing Song, Jing Luo, Jianyong Zou, Zhanglin Hong, Kai-Qin Xu and Quanda Luo
Water 2024, 16(12), 1754; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121754 - 20 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 828
Abstract
Sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes exhibit great potential for the degradation of organic pollutants. In this study, P-doped biochar (PBC500) was successfully synthesized by the pyrolysis of H3PO4-impregnated cow manure waste and was employed to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for [...] Read more.
Sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes exhibit great potential for the degradation of organic pollutants. In this study, P-doped biochar (PBC500) was successfully synthesized by the pyrolysis of H3PO4-impregnated cow manure waste and was employed to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the elimination of 17β-estradiol (E2). The characterization results showed that the surface area, defective structure, and functional groups (C=O and phosphorus-containing groups) of biochar increased after H3PO4 modification. PBC500 exhibited high PMS activation activity and excellent E2 degradation capacity; 97.91% of 3 mg/L E2 can be removed within 90 min using 0.2 g/L PBC500 and 1 mM PMS. Based on the quenching experiments and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, defective structures, C=O, and P-C groups on biochar act as active sites to promote the catalytic oxidation of E2 by generating O2 and 1O2. In addition, PBC500 displayed excellent reusability, achieving 65.15% E2 degradation after three reuse cycles. Overall, this study presented a new technique that supports a high efficiency, environmentally friendly, and low cost treatment method for E2 wastewater and simultaneously provided a new option for the resource utilization of livestock waste. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Biochar and Activated Carbon in Water Treatment)
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