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Water Treatment by Adsorption and Catalytic Methods

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2022) | Viewed by 13251

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Waste is a problem in industry. The decay of waste compounds can be highly toxic to the environment, causing significant harm to aquatic photosynthetic plants and algae. Clean water for drinking and other purposes is an important requirement in the modern world, made all the more urgent as the available sources of drinking water throughout the world are contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants.

Rapid industrialization is the main cause of water pollution, as water is used as a solvent in different industrial processes. The textile industry is considered to be one of the main contributors to water pollution, as water is used therein as solvent in fiber processing, as well as to remove unnecessary chemicals from fabrics.

Different wastewater treatment processes such as coagulation, flocculation, biodegradation, adsorption, and oxidation are used to remove colour residues from water. These methods are costly, not energy efficient and leave some pollutants untreated.

Due to the shortcomings of the conventional methods described above, researchers have turned to biological adsorbents for pollutant removal from wastewater because of the low process cost and environmental friendliness. The impact of different adsorption parameters such as pH, temperature, contact time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage need to be evaluated. Different kinetic adsorption models such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion model models can be applied.

This Special Issue merges the latest advances in the research on adsorption for the control of water contamination. Its benefits include its low starting cost, straightforwardness and simple recovery of the adsorbent and adsorbate materials. Studies on activated carbon (AC) are popular, due to the fact that AC can be prepared from low-cost raw materials. Novel research on plant waste materials may offer an inexpensive source of raw materials in AC production. Different plant waste biomass conversion techniques into activated carbon will be presented as they have been used to remove different organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewaters.

Dr. Ivar Zekker
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1601 KiB  
Article
Equilibrium, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies for the Adsorption of Metanil Yellow Using Carbonized Pistachio Shell-Magnetic Nanoparticles
by Adnan, Muhammad Omer, Behramand Khan, Inkisar Khan, Muhammad Alamzeb, Farah Muhammad Zada, Ihsan Ullah, Rahim Shah, Mohammed Alqarni and Jesus Simal-Gandara
Water 2022, 14(24), 4139; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14244139 - 19 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2572
Abstract
The cost-effective adsorbents of carbonized pistachio shell magnetic nanoparticles (CPSMNPs) were synthesized. SEM, EDX, and BET characterized the prepared CPSMNPs. The CPSMNPs were used as adsorbents to remove Metanil Yellow (MY) dye. The adsorption of MY was investigated with the effect of pH, [...] Read more.
The cost-effective adsorbents of carbonized pistachio shell magnetic nanoparticles (CPSMNPs) were synthesized. SEM, EDX, and BET characterized the prepared CPSMNPs. The CPSMNPs were used as adsorbents to remove Metanil Yellow (MY) dye. The adsorption of MY was investigated with the effect of pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, adsorbent dose, and temperature. The SEM image of CPSMNPs reveals fine particles with an average size of 400–700 nm and a substantial surface area increase (112.58 m2/g). The EDX analysis confirms the carbonization of PS to CPS and the successful impregnation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. CPSMNPs showed excellent adsorption efficiency, i.e., 94% for adsorption of MY of 10 mL of 100 ppm MY at optimum conditions. Kinetics data fit pseudo-second-order kinetics. The Langmuir isotherm better represents the equilibrium data with the spontaneous sorption process. This study investigates that the synthesized nanoparticles have an excellent texture and can be used as a special adsorbent for the adsorption of wastewater pollutants like MY. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Treatment by Adsorption and Catalytic Methods)
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18 pages, 21758 KiB  
Article
Novel Magnetite Nanocomposites (Fe3O4/C) for Efficient Immobilization of Ciprofloxacin from Aqueous Solutions through Adsorption Pretreatment and Membrane Processes
by Muhammad Zahoor, Azmat Ullah, Sultan Alam, Mian Muhammad, Roy Hendroko Setyobudi, Ivar Zekker and Amir Sohail
Water 2022, 14(5), 724; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14050724 - 24 Feb 2022
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 2798
Abstract
The release of antibiotics into the aquatic environment enhances the drug resistance capabilities of microorganisms, as in large water reservoirs, their concentrations are lesser than their minimum bactericidal concentration, and microorganisms living there become resistant to such antibiotics. Therefore, robust hybrid technologies, comprising [...] Read more.
The release of antibiotics into the aquatic environment enhances the drug resistance capabilities of microorganisms, as in large water reservoirs, their concentrations are lesser than their minimum bactericidal concentration, and microorganisms living there become resistant to such antibiotics. Therefore, robust hybrid technologies, comprising of efficient conventional adsorption processes and modern membranes processes, are needed to effectively remove such pollutants from industrial effluents. The present study is an attempt where iron-based magnetic carbon nanocomposites (Fe3O4/C) were prepared from mango biomass precursors and utilized as an adsorbent for the removal ciprofloxacin from wastewater in combination with three types of membranes that are robust but fouled by organic matter. The Fe3O4/C composite was characterized using energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX) technique, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), Barrett–Joyner-Halenda (BJH) surface area, Thermogravimetric (TG)/Thermal differential analysis (DTA) and point of zero charge pH analyses. Initially, batch adsorption experiments were used to determine adsorption parameters. Then the adsorption unit was coupled with membrane pilot plant where the adsorption role was to adsorb CIPRO before entering into the membrane unit to control fouling caused by selected antibiotic. In batch experiments, the equilibrium time was found as 60 min and kinetics data were more favorably accommodated with the pseudo-2nd-order model (R2 = 0.99). Langmuir model (R2 = 0.997) more favorably accommodated the equilibrium data in comparison to other models used such as the Freundlich (R2 = 0.86), Temkin (R2 = 0.91) and Jovanovich (R2 = 0.95) models. The thermodynamic aspects of the adsorption process were also evaluated and the process was found to be spontaneous, feasible and exothermic. The influence of adsorbent dosage and pH, were also investigated, where the optimal adsorption conditions were: optimum pH = 7 and optimum Fe3O4/C dosage = 0.04 g. The CIPRO-loaded nanocomposite was regenerated with NaOH, CH3OH and distilled water several times. Improved percent rejections of CIPRO and permeate fluxes with the membrane/adsorption operation were observed as compared to naked membrane operations. Magnetic adsorbent was found as a best solution of foul control; a defect in the modern robust technology of membranes. However, further experimentation is needed to validate the present findings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Treatment by Adsorption and Catalytic Methods)
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15 pages, 5626 KiB  
Article
Biodegradation of Brown 706 Dye by Bacterial Strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa
by Asad Ullah Khan, Mujaddad Ur Rehman, Muhammad Zahoor, Abdul Bari Shah and Ivar Zekker
Water 2021, 13(21), 2959; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13212959 - 20 Oct 2021
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 3650
Abstract
Dyes are the most challenging pollutants for the aquatic environment that are not only toxic, but also interfering photosynthesis as light penetration into deep water is changed. A number of methods are used for the water reclamation, however, among them biological methods are [...] Read more.
Dyes are the most challenging pollutants for the aquatic environment that are not only toxic, but also interfering photosynthesis as light penetration into deep water is changed. A number of methods are used for the water reclamation, however, among them biological methods are preferably used due to their compatibility with nature. In the present research, 15 different bacterial strains were used to decolorize Brown 706 dye. Among the bacterial strains, Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed maximum decolorization activity; hence in the subsequent experiments Pseudomonas aeruginosa was used. First the decolorization activities were carried out under different physicochemical conditions to obtain the optimum decolorization benefits of the selected microorganism. The optimum conditions established were 37°C, pH of 7 and operation cycle time 72 h. In the subsequent experiment all optimum conditions were combined in a single experiment where 73.91% of decolorization efficiency was achieved. For the evaluation of metabolites formed after decolorization/degradation the aliquots containing bacteria were homogenized, filtered and then subjected to extraction. The extracted metabolites were then subjected to the silica gel column isolation. UV–Vis, FTIR, and NMR techniques were used to elucidate structures of the metabolites. Out of the collected metabolites only P-xylene was identified, which has been formed by cleavage of azo linkage by azo reductase enzyme of bacteria following the deamination and methylation of nitro substituted benzene ring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Treatment by Adsorption and Catalytic Methods)
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17 pages, 2546 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Investigation of the Adsorption of Cadmium Iodide from Water Using Polyaniline Polymer Filled with TiO2 and ZnO Nanoparticles
by Noureddine Mahdhi, Norah Salem Alsaiari, Fatimah Mohammed Alzahrani, Khadijah Mohammedsaleh Katubi, Abdelfattah Amari and Saber Hammami
Water 2021, 13(18), 2591; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182591 - 19 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2919
Abstract
The removal of heavy metals from drinking water has attracted great interest in water purification technology. In this study, a biocompatible Polyaniline (PANI) polymer filled with TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) is considered as an adsorbent of cadmium iodide from water. Theoretical [...] Read more.
The removal of heavy metals from drinking water has attracted great interest in water purification technology. In this study, a biocompatible Polyaniline (PANI) polymer filled with TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) is considered as an adsorbent of cadmium iodide from water. Theoretical investigation of the van der Waals (vdW) interactions deduced from the Hamaker constant calculated on the basis of Lifshitz theory was presented. It was found that the surface energy as well as the work of adhesion between water and PANI/NPs across air increases with an increasing volume fraction of the TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles. Consequently, an increase in the Laplace pressure around the cavities/porosities was found, which leads to the enhancement of the specific contact surface between water and PANI/NPs. On the other hand, for the interactions between CdI2 particles and PANI/NPs surface across water, we show that the interactions are governed principally by the attractive London dispersion forces. The vdW energy and force increase proportionally with the augmentation of the volume fraction of nanoparticles and of the radius of the CdI2 particle. Particularly, the PANI/TiO2 has been proved to be a better candidate for adsorption of cadmium iodide from water than PANI/ZnO. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Treatment by Adsorption and Catalytic Methods)
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