Near-complete recycling of real mix electroplating sludge as valuable metals via Fe/Cr co-crystallization and stepwise extraction route.

In electroplating sludge, iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) are common impurities that need to be separated before recycling valuable heavy metals. However, the traditional Fe/Al separation process often leads to significant losses of heavy metals. To address this issue, a new approach was developed to sequentially separate Fe/Al and recycle chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) from real electroplating sludge. The sludge contained 4.5% Cr, 1.2% Al, 1.1% Ni, and 14.6% Fe. Initially, the sludge was completely dissolved in a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. The resulting acid solution was then heated to 160 °C for 10 h with the addition of saccharose. This hydrothermal treatment led to the hydrolysis and crystallization of 98.3% of Fe, 31.8% of Cr, 1.1% of Al, and 4.9% of Ni, forming akaganeite-bearing particles. It was observed that the excessive amount of saccharose also improved the removal of Cr, Al, and Ni, but decreased the removal of Fe. After the hydrothermal treatment, the remaining supernatant was adjusted to different pH levels (1.9, 2.9, and 4.5, respectively), and then Al, Cr, and Ni were stepwise extracted using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate acid (P204). The recycling efficiencies achieved were 97.4% for Al, 61.2% for Cr, and 89.3% for Ni. This approach provides a promising method for the stepwise separation of Fe/Al and the recycling of heavy metals from electroplating sludge.

Stepwise extraction of Fe, Al, Ca, and Zn: A green route to recycle raw electroplating sludge.

Electroplating sludge is a hazardous waste produced in large quantities in the electroplating industry during production. It is rich in heavy metal resources and can be recovered as value-added heavy metal products. To recover Zn in electroplating sludge, Fe/Al/Ca impurities were effectively removed as hematite, boehmite, and calcium sulfate, respectively, via a facile hydrothermal method with reduction of nitric acid by addition of glucose. After the sludge was dissolved in nitric acid, the generated solution contained 6.1 g/L of Zn, 2.2 g/L of Fe, 2.5 g/L of Al, and 2.9 g/L of Ca. First, approximately 100% Fe was extracted as hematite nanoparticles containing 94.6 wt% Fe2O3 after the solution was treated at 190 °C for 6 h. Second, when the temperature was elevated to 270 °C, nearly 99% Al was isolated as boehmite particles containing 95.2 wt% Al2O3. Third, more than 98% Ca was removed as anhydrite, which contained 95.9 wt% CaSO4, by adding sulfuric acid. During the steps, the total loss of Zn was less than 3%, and 5.75 g/L of residual Zn was recovered as zincite containing 92.2 wt% ZnO by adjusting the pH to 8. The dissolved Fe, Al, and Ca impurities were successfully removed as purified hematite, boehmite, and anhydrite, respectively, through the stepwise separation method by adjusting reaction temperatures and pH. The high content of Zn in the electroplating sludge was finally purified as zincite.

Effective recycling of Co and Sr from Co/Sr-bearing wastewater via an integrated Fe coagulation and hematite precipitation approach.

Flocculant overdose has been considered an inefficient technique for precipitating heavy metals from wastewater at low levels due to the high yield of hazardous waste sludge that should be treated properly before it can be disposed of safely in landfills. This problem was effectively solved in this study via a novel method that recycles sludge separately into high-purity hematite and heavy metal-bearing products. The wastewater, which contained 10.3 mg/L of Co and 4.8 mg/L of Sr, was coagulated by adding ferric salt to generate Co/Sr-bearing sludge. The sludge was dissolved in HNO3, followed by hydrothermal treatment with the addition of organic matter (e.g. methanol or isopropanol). Without the addition of organic matter, only 56.5% of total Fe was removed as irregular hematite particles, whilst Co/Sr remained unchanged in the acid. Over 99.5% of total Fe was eliminated as hematite nanoparticles with 97.7% Fe2O3 content, but more than 98% Co/Sr remained in the acid when methanol with a molar ratio (Mmethanol/MFe) of 5 was added. Nearly 100% Co was precipitated by adjusting the pH of the acid to 8 to generate Co hydroxide with 83.9% purity. Meanwhile, the residual Sr was further precipitated by adding Na2CO3 to generate SrCO3 with 96.8% purity. Isopropanol achieved total Fe removal similar to that of methanol. The optimal molar ratio (MIsopropanol/MFe) was 1, which corresponded to the removal of 98.7% total Fe. Methanol and isopropanol can react with NO3- in acid to reduce NO2- concentration and improve acid pH, promoting hydrolysis followed by the crystallisation of ferric Fe with hematite as the final product. This paper is the first report on an environment-friendly method for enriching Co/Sr without generating any waste.

Effective recycling of Cu from electroplating wastewater effluent via the combined Fenton oxidation and hydrometallurgy route.

Heavy metals, which commonly occur in complex forms, are difficult to remove in alkali electroplating wastewater effluent, and their resource recycling is rarely reported. Here, a Cu-bearing alkali wastewater effluent was effectively treated through Fenton oxidation, and the generated Fenton sludge was recycled into highly pure tenorite and hematite particles. The effluent contained 1.51 mg/L Cu and was subjected to Fenton oxidation, pH adjustment and coagulation. Amongst the three methods, Fenton oxidation showed superior efficiency to Cu removal, and the residual Cu in the effluent was 0.06 mg/L, thereby meeting the discharge standard for electroplating wastewater. However, Cu removal achieved less than 20% after pH adjustment and coagulation. Cu-bearing sludge, which was generated through the Fenton process, was dissolved in a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. The dissolved solution contained 1.92 g/L Cu and 73.6 g/L Fe impurity. Impure Fe (67.4%) was removed as hematite aggregates after the solution was directly treated via a hydrometallurgy route, whilst 99.2% Cu was kept. When 0.5 mL of methanol was introduced to the hydrometallurgy system, nearly 100% Fe was removed as hematite nanoparticles with 94.8% purity, whilst more than 98% Cu was kept. The residual Cu was 1.88 g/L and precipitated as a tenorite block with a CuO content of 91.1% by adjusting the treated solution to pH 9. This study presented an environment-friendly method for enriching Cu from electroplating wastewater effluent without generating any waste.

Novel application of a Z-scheme photocatalyst of Ag3PO4@g-C3N4 for photocatalytic fuel cells.

A composite of Ag3PO4@g-C3N4 with the Z-scheme structure was synthesized, and used as the photoanode in a photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC). With the help of the Z-scheme design, both the degradation of tetracycline and the output of maximum power density (Pmax) were greatly enhanced in this PFC system. The degradation rate of tetracycline in the Ag3PO4@g-C3N4 PFC was 2.53 times and 3.65 times that in the PFC systems with the Ag3PO4 photoanode and the g-C3N4 photoanode, respectively. The Pmax of the Ag3PO4@g-C3N4 PFC was 6.06 µW cm-2, which was 1.46 times and 90.4 times that of the Ag3PO4 PFC (4.16 µW cm-2) and the g-C3N4 PFC (0.067 µW cm-2), respectively. The possible mechanism was proposed. The Z-scheme photoanode could not only contribute to the separation of photogenerated carriers to achieve a high photocatalytic activity, but also reserve a good redox capacity. Additionally, aeration played an important role on the PFC performance. It was demonstrated that N2 purging facilitated the electricity generation, while O2 purging promoted the pollutant degradation.

Micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR) for efficient COD and nitrogen removal of high-concentration wastewater.

A micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR) was developed for carbon and nitrogen removal of wastewater, in which dissolved oxygen (DO) gradient and internal circulation could be created by setting the aerators along one side of the reactor, and micro-pressure could be realized by sealing most of the top cap and increasing the outlet water level. In this study, velocity and DO distribution in the reactor was measured, removal performance treating high-concentration wastewater was investigated, and the main functional microorganisms were analyzed. The experiment results indicated that there was stable swirl flow and spatial DO gradient in MPSR. Operated in sequencing batch reactor mode, distinct biological environments spatially and temporally were created. Under the average influent condition of chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 2,884 mg/L and total nitrogen (TN) of 184 mg/L, COD removal efficiency and removal loading was 98% and 1.8 kgCOD/(m3·d) respectively, and TN removal efficiency and removal loading reached up to 90% and 0.11 kgTN/(m3·d) respectively. With efficient utilization of DO and simpler configuration for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification, the MPSR has the potential of treating high-concentration wastewater at lower cost.

Effects of Al3+ on the microstructure and bioflocculation of anoxic sludge.

The aluminum ions generated from mining aluminum, electrolytic aluminum and the industrial production of aluminum-based coagulants (such as AlCl3 and Al2(SO4)3) enter sewage treatment plants and interact with activated sludges. An anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2O) process was used to reveal the effects of Al3+ on the pollutant removal efficiencies, bioflocculation and the microstructure of sludge. The results showed that a low concentration of Al3+ improved the pollutant removal efficiencies and increased the sludge particle size. However, a high concentration of Al3+ hindered microbial flocculation and reduced the pollutant removal efficiencies. With a 10 mg/L Al3+ addition, the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and NH4+-N increased by 3%, 16% and 27%, and reached as high as 68%, 60% and 87%, respectively. At the same time, the dehydrogenase activity, flocculation ability (FA) and contact angle of the sludge reached their maximum levels at 41.3 mg/L/hr, 45% and 79.63°, respectively. The specific surface area of the sludge decreased to 7.084 m2/g and the sludge pore size distribution shifted to concentrate in the mesoporous range. Most of Al3+ was adsorbed on the surface of sludge, changing the physicochemical properties and physical structure of the sludge.

Valorization of manganese-containing groundwater treatment sludge by preparing magnetic adsorbent for Cu(II) adsorption.

Mn-containing sludge from groundwater treatment was converted to magnetic particles (MPs) via a one-step hydrothermal method using sodium ascorbate (SA) as the reductant. The MPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, magnetometry and Gran titration and the results showed that magnetic jacobsite was obtained as an intermediate product in transformation of Fe/Mn oxides to siderite and rhodochrosite. When the molar ratio of SA to Mn in the sludge was two, the produced MPs-2 contained a mixture of ferrihdyrite, hematite, jacobsite and Si/Al oxides, and could magnetize at 2.4 emu/g. Ferrihydrite content in MPs decreased with increase of the SA/Mn molar ratio, leading to decrease of the surface sites concentration (Hs). Thus, MPs-2 contained optimized Hs of 6.7 mmoL/g and a desirable adsorption capacity of Cu(II) (73.1 mg/g). The adsorption isotherms of MPs-2 on Cu(II) complied with the Langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics fitted well with the pseudo-second-order model. The major mechanism of adsorption was cationic exchange of the coordinated H and Na ions on MPs-2 surface sites with the Cu(II) ions. This study was the first time to report preparation of MPs by recycling Mn-containing sludge, which could be used as a high-capacity and low-cost adsorbent in treatment of heavy metal-containing wastewater.

Characterization of a novel micro-pressure swirl reactor for removal of chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen from domestic wastewater at low temperature.

A novel micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR) was designed and applied to treat domestic wastewater at low temperature by acclimating microbial biomass with steadily decreasing temperature from 15 to 3 °C. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) was constantly removed by 85% and maintained below 50 mg L-1 in the effluent during the process. When the air flow was controlled at 0.2 m3 h-1, a swirl circulation was formed in the reactor, which created a dissolved oxygen (DO) gradient with a low DO zone in the center and a high DO zone in the periphery for denitrification and nitrification. 81% of total nitrogen was removed by this reactor, in which ammonium was reduced by over 90%. However, denitrification was less effective because of the presence of low levels of oxygen. The progressively decreasing temperature favored acclimation of psychrophilic bacteria in the reactor, which replaced mesophilic bacteria in the process of treatment.

Improving oxygen dissolution and distribution in a bioreactor with enhanced simultaneous COD and nitrogen removal by simply introducing micro-pressure and swirl.

Increasingly, environmental regulations are demanding more exacting chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrogen removal from wastewater, which come at a high economic cost. A very simple novel bioreactor, the micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR), can improve the dissolution and distribution of oxygen by the introduced micro-pressure swirl. Comparison with a conventional sequencing batch reactor (SBR) over 76 days of operation showed that this method can enhance simultaneous COD and nitrogen removal. By installing an aeration diffuser on one side of the two-dimensional MPSR, a swirl formed in the bioreactor that extended the retention time of the air bubbles. This unique flow regime, combined with the micro-pressure caused by the elevated water surface at the bubble outflow point, resulted in a higher level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the MPSR. Aerobic and anaerobic zones that created appropriate conditions for simultaneous COD and nitrogen removal also formed in the MPSR. As the organic loading rate increased from 0.29 to 1.68 g COD/(L · day) over the test period, the COD removal efficiencies of the MPSR were generally 10-20 % greater than those of the SBR. In particular, the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies of the MPSR and SBR were 40-50 and 20-35 %, respectively, whereas the TN concentrations in the MPSR effluent were always around 10 mg/L lower than those of the SBR. Further, because of the unique DO distribution, the bacterial species in the MPSR were more diverse and contributed to enhanced TN removal.

Study of phosphate removal from aqueous solution by zinc oxide.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) was synthesized and used to investigate the mechanism of phosphate removal from aqueous solution. ZnO particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy before and after adsorption. Batch experiments were carried out to investigate the kinetics, isotherms, effects of initial pH and co-existing anions. The adsorption process was rapid and equilibrium was almost reached within 150 min. The adsorption kinetics were described well by a pseudo-second-order equation, and the maximum phosphate adsorption capacity was 163.4 mg/g at 298 K and pH ∼6.2±0.1. Thermodynamic analysis indicated the phosphate adsorption onto ZnO was endothermic and spontaneous. The point of zero charge of ZnO was around 8.4 according to the pH-drift method. Phosphate adsorption capacity reduced with the increasing initial solution pH values. The ligand exchange and Lewis acid-base interaction dominated the adsorption process in the lower and the higher pH range, respectively. Nitrate, sulfate and chloride ions had a negligible effect on phosphate removal, while carbonate displayed significant inhibition behavior.

Effect of inorganic anions on hydrothermal removal of impurities Fe/Al from Cu-bearing polymetallic leachate.

Hydrometallurgy recycling of heavy metals from electroplating sludge is of hot spot in recent decades. Such recycling was tedious in the separation of impure Fe/Al prior to heavy metals from acid leachate after sludge dissolution. Herein, a facile hydrothermal route was developed to separate Fe/Al from Cu-bearing leachate. The results showed that when the leachate was directly hydrothermally treated at 160 °C in the presence of nitrate and ethanol, Al/Cu were stable in the leachate, but nearly 100% Fe was removed as hematite nanoparticles. With the addition of chloridion, the removal efficiencies of Fe/Al/Cu did not change apparently, but the corresponding precipitate was akageneite, not hematite. By replacing chloridion with sulfate, nearly 100% Fe and 98.6% Al were separated as natrojarosite/natroalunite block, while the Cu loss was only 1.7%. However, with the supplementary of phosphate, the Fe/Al removal achieved nearly 100%, but the Cu removal also achieved by 92.6%. The thermodynamic analysis showed that Cu was precipitated rapidly via the phosphate/Cu oxyhydroxide route by adding phosphate but removed slightly via the coordination route on the Fe/Al precipitates with the addition of nitrate, chloridion, and sulfate. In summary, Fe was effectively separated as hematite, akageneite, natrojarosite, and phosphate halite, in the presence of nitrate, chloridion, sulfate, and phosphate, separately. But the removal of Al as natroalunite and AlPO4 only started by adding sulfate and phosphate, respectively. Such results enabled a short hydrometallurgy process to effectively recycle heavy metals from electroplating sludge.

In-situ generation of iron activated percarbonate for sustainable sludge dewatering.

Effective dewatering of sewage sludge could potentially address the issues of high energy consumption and large carbon footprint inherent in the sludge treatment process, advancing toward carbon neutrality in environmental remediation. Yet, the surface hydrophilic characteristics and water-holding interfacial affinity in sludge led to dwindled sludge-water separation performance. Here, the integration of in-situ generation of iron from zero-valent scrap iron (ZVSI) and sodium percarbonate (SPC) was attempted to attenuate the water-retaining interfacial affinity within sludge, thus achieving superior sludge dewatering performance. Results showed that under the optimal conditions, the ZVSI + SPC system led to a remarkable decline of 76.09 % in the specific resistance to filtration of the sludge, accompanied by a notable decline of 34.96 % in the water content. Moreover, the utilization of ZVSI + SPC system could be a viable alternative to the traditional strategies in terms of enhanced sludge dewaterability, offering application potential with stable operating performance, economic feasibility, and reduced carbon emissions. Investigation into dewatering mechanism revealed that ZVSI could maintain the Fe3+/Fe2+ in a stable dynamic cycle and continuously in-situ generate Fe2+, thereby efficaciously fostering the SPC activation for the ceaseless yield of reactive oxygen species. The predominant •OH and 1O2 efficiently decomposed the hydrophilic biopolymers, therefore minimizing the hydrophilic protein secondary structures, along with the hydrogen and disulfide bonds within proteins. Subsequently, the water-holding interfacial affinity was profoundly diminished, leading to intensified hydrophobicity, self-flocculation, and dewaterability. These findings have important implications for the advancement of efficacious ZVSI + SPC conditioning techniques toward sustainable energy and low-carbon prospects.

Effect of transient organic load and aeration changes to pollutant removal and extracellular polymeric substances.

Transient organic load shocks have an important influence on the removal of pollutants and the content and composition of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). This study was based on a micro-pressure reactor (MPR) with the influent COD concentration as the variable, while different operating conditions were controlled by adjusting the aeration rate. The effect of single-cycle transient organic loading shocks on EPS and pollutant removal and the correlation between their changes were investigated. The results showed that COD removal was unaffected under the shock, and the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus removal decreased. As the incoming carbon source increased, the EPS content at shock increased, with the polysaccharide (PS) content being the most affected. As aeration increased, the effect of organic load shock on EPS and pollutant removal decreased. Under different aeration conditions, PS contributed to denitrification and anaerobic phosphorus release during transient organic load shocks, and protein (PN) contributed to aerobic phosphorus uptake. The reduction in PS and PN relative to the pre-shock caused by the shock resulted in the EPS exhibiting a favourable effect on COD removal and an inhibitory effect on the effectiveness of nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

Effective recovery of Ti as anatase nanoparticles from waste red mud via a coupled leaching and boiling route.

Red mud (RM) a solid waste generated by the bauxite smelting industry, is a rich source of metal resources, especially Ti, and its recycling can bring significant environmental and economic benefits. In this study, precious metal Ti was efficiently recovered from red mud using a coupled acid leaching and boiling route for the effective separation of low-value metals. The red mud which contained mainly 10.69% Si, 12.1% Al, 15.2% Ca, 10.99% Fe, and 4.37% Ti, was recovered in five steps. First, a nitric acid solution was used to leach the metals in multiple stages, resulting in an acidic leach solution with high concentrations of Fe, Al, Ti, and Ca ions 2.7 g/L, 4.7 g/L, 5.43 g/L, and 1.8 g/L, respectively. Then, a small amount of sucrose was added as a catalyst to recover Ti from the leach solution under hydrothermal conditions, resulting in the targeted recovery of 98.6% of Ti in the form of high-purity anatase while Fe, Al, and Ca remained in the solution. Next, the Fe in solution was separated as hematite products at a temperature of 110°C and a reaction time of 4 h. Similarly, the Al in the solution was separated and precipitated as boehmite by heating it at 260°C for a reaction time of 20 h. Finally, the remaining Ca in solution was recovered by simple pH regulation. Economic accounting assessment showed that the method yields $101.06 for 1 t of red mud treated, excluding labor costs. This study provides a novel approach to recover precious metals from metal wastes through the whole process resource recovery of solid waste red mud.

Efficient separation of impurities Fe/Al/Ca and recovery of Zn from electroplating sludge using glucose as reductant.

Electroplating sludge (ES), a hazardous waste containing heavy metals and Fe/Al/Ca impurities, is conventionally disposed of in landfills. In this study, a pilot-scale vessel with an effective capacity of 20 L was applied to recycle Zn from real ES. The sludge contained 6.3 wt% Fe, 6.9 wt% Al, 2.6 wt% Si, 6.1 wt% Ca, and 17.6 wt% Zn and was treated using a four-step method. First, ES was dissolved in nitric acid after washing in a water bath at 75 °C for 3 h to produce an acidic solution with Fe, Al, Ca, and Zn concentrations of 4527.2, 3116.1, 3357.7, and 21,275 mg/L, respectively. Second, the acidic solution was added with glucose at an Mglucose/Mnitrate ratio of 0.08 and hydrothermally treated at 160 °C for 4 h. During this step, nearly 100 % Fe and 100 % Al were simultaneously removed as a mixture containing 53.1 wt% Fe2O3 and 45.7 wt% Al2O3. This process was repeated five times, during which the Fe/Al removal and Ca/Zn loss rates remained unchanged. Third, the residual solution was adjusted with sulfuric acid, and over 99 % Ca was removed as gypsum. The residual Fe, Al, Ca, and Zn concentrations were 0.44, 0.88, 52.59, and 31,177.1 mg/L, respectively. Finally, Zn in the solution was precipitated as ZnO with a concentration of 94.3 %. Economic calculations showed that each 1 t of ES processed created revenue of about $122. This is the first study of high-value metal resource recovery using real electroplating sludge at the pilot scale. This work highlights the pilot-scale application of resource utilization of real ES and provides new insights into the recycling of heavy metals from hazardous waste.

Valorization of waste Fe-rich sludge as erdite/KFeS2 rods under atmosphere condition and evaluation of their mutual transformation.

Pilot scale production of one-dimensional (FeS2)nn- rods was performed by using an automatic 20 L vessel at 80 °C under atmosphere condition with the resource utilization of Fe-rich sludge. The sludge was simulated at lab-scale with chemical pure of ferric trichloride. After the sludge treatment, the corresponding rods were not formed at room temperature. But by heating at 80 °C, erdite rod was well-crystallized after 0.5 h by only adding Na halite, and KFeS2 rod was crystallized weakly after 2 h and highly at 10 h with the addition of K halite. After 48 h heating, the rods grow radially to 300 nm for erdite, but to 5 µm for KFeS2. However, at room temperature, erdite rod was converted to high crystallized KFeS2 in KOH water or ethanol solution, whilst the conversion of KFeS2 rod to erdite also occurred in NaOH water solution, but terminated in NaOH ethanol solution, without any morphology change. It is also noted that with the presence of both Na and K halite, the rod was an intermediate of erdite to KFeS2 with 1 µm length after heating at 100 °C but converted to 10-µm-length KFeS2 crystal at the temperature of > 120 °C. The thermodynamic results confirmed that during the rod polymerization, the Fe(OH)3HS- formation was the sole rate-limiting step and showed a positive Gibbs value of 6.45 kJ/mol at room temperature and negative values at the temperature of > 48 °C. In summary, this method not only enabled the vaporization of waste Fe-rich sludge as value-added rods without generating any secondary waste but also showed a new route for the in situ conversion of erdite/KFeS2 rods at room temperature.

An entire recycling of spent Al-bearing cathode powder as giniite sphere and lithiophophate plate with leaching-hydrothermal-precipitation process.

Spent lithium battery is a polymetallic waste, and valuable to be recovered as Li-bearing chemical with the barriers of impurities separation, especially Fe and Al. Here in, Li-rich cathode powder was manually disassembled from spent battery, and then recovered as lithiophosphate plate in consideration of effective separation of impure Fe/Al. The powder comprised of 23.2% Fe, 3.2% Al, 5.5% Li and 19.6% P, and then dissolved by azotic acid as Li-rich solution. When the solution was heated to 190°C for 10 h with the supplementary of saccharose, more than 99.9% Fe and 98.9% Al were removed as spherical giniite particles, in accordance with the rest of Fe/Al at the concentrations of 2.1 and 14 mg/L, whilst the loss of Li was less than 1.5%. But without saccharose, the Fe/Al removals only achieved by 99.2% and 52.1%. It is also found that the Fe/Al/Li removal achieved by 99.6%, 96% and 25.3% after adjusting the solution to pH 2.7 by NaOH. After hydrothermal treatment, the rest Li can be recycled as lithiophosphate plate by pH adjustment, in contrast to the recovery efficiency of 98.5% Li. Such method raised a facile route to effectively separate impure Fe/Al from Li-rich cathode powder, and showed promising application in the industrial recovery of spent battery.

The synergistic effect of Escherichia coli inactivation by sequential disinfection with low level chlorine dioxide followed by free chlorine.

To the best of our knowledge, there was little information available on pathogen removal using low level disinfectant followed by free chlorine in sequential disinfection (SD). This study investigated Escherichia coli inactivation by four types of disinfection: single step disinfection (SSD), SD, traditional sequential disinfection (TSD) and mixed disinfectant disinfection (MDD). Results indicated that SD had higher ability to inactivate E. coli than the others, indicating there was a positive synergistic effect on chlorine disinfection by prior dosing with a low level of chlorine dioxide (ClO(2)). The ONPG assay suggested that the permeability of cell wall rather than the viability of E. coli were changed under 0.02 mg/l ClO(2) treatment. The coexistence of residual ClO(2) and free chlorine also plays an active synergistic effect. Additionally, temperature had a positive effect on E. coli inactivation in SD, while inactivation was reduced in alkaline compared to neutral and acidic conditions.

Electrocatalytic degradation of sulfamethylthiadiazole by GAC@Ni/Fe three-dimensional particle electrode.

In this work, GAC@Ni/Fe particle electrodes were prepared and employed for the degradation of sulfamethylthiadiazole (SMT) by three-dimensional electrocatalytic technology. The effects of particle electrode bi-metal loading ratio, cell voltage, particle electrode dosage, electrode plate spacing, and SMT initial concentration on SMT removal were studied. In addition, GAC@Ni/Fe particle electrode was analyzed by the scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) to characterize which indicated that a significant amount of iron-nickel oxide was formed on the surface of GAC@Ni/Fe particle electrode. The results indicated that when the nickel-iron loading ratio is 1:1, the SMT removal effect is the best, and the removal rate can reach 90.89% within 30 min. Compared with the granular activated carbon without bimetal, the removal efficiency is increased by 37.58%. The degradation of SMT in the GAC@Ni/Fe particle three-dimensional electrode reactor is the joint result of both direct oxidation and indirect oxidation. The contribution rates of direct oxidation of anode and particle electrode and indirect oxidation of ·OH in the degradation are 32%, 27%, and 41%, respectively. Based on the intermediate detected by ultra-high liquid chromatography and the calculation of bond energy of SMT molecule by Gauss software, the degradation pathway of SMT in the GAC@Ni/Fe three-dimensional electrode reactor is proposed. This research provides a green, healthy, and effective method for removing sulfonamide micro-polluted wastewater.