Preparation and characterization of rare earth element nanoparticles for enhanced photocatalytic degradation.

The present work focuses on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) on erbium ion (Er3+) doped TiO2 under visible light. Pure TiO2 nanoparticles and erbium (Er3+) doped TiO2 nanocomposite (Er3+/TiO2) NCs were synthesized using the sol-gel method. The synthesized (Er3+/TiO2) NCs were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM), elementary dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), specific surface area (BET), zeta potential, and particle size. Different parameters were used to study their efficiency for the photoreactor (PR) and the synthesized catalyst. These parameters include pH of the feed solution, the rate of flow, the presence of an oxidizing agent (aeration pump), different ratios of nanoparticles, the amount of catalyst, and the concentrations of pollutants. An example of an organic contaminant was the dye methylene blue (MB). The result achieved using the synthesized nanoparticles (I) under ultraviolet light pure TiO2 was found to have degraded by 85%. For (Er3+/TiO2) NCs under visible light, dye removal increased with pH to a maximum of 77% degradation at pH 5. Furthermore, photocatalytic efficiency improves to 80% at 40 rpm (3 l/h) low motor speed. The degradation efficiency decreased to 70% when the MB concentration was increased from 5 to 30 mg/L. When oxygen content was increased using an air pump, and deterioration reached 85% under visible light, it improved performance.

Surface modification of thin film composite forward osmosis membrane using graphene nanosheets for water desalination.

In this study, the main motivation of this work is desalination of water for irrigation arid area such as Sidri- Baba basins- south Sinai, Egypt. Also, the novelty of this work is modification of TFC surface membrane by mix of HA, DA and GO to get high performance of FO technique. Interfacial polymerization was employed to modify a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane for forward osmosis (FO) applications; moreover, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets (GONs), a dopamine solution (DA), and naturally accessible humic acid (HA) were modified on a polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. The effects of the different quantities of GO, HA, and DA on the membrane surfaces, as well as their various cross-sectional morphologies and FO-desalination capabilities, were investigated. The integrated TFC membrane containing appropriate GO, HA, and DA blends outperformed the control membrane, obtaining high water flux, and high salt rejection. Furthermore,.

Groundwater quality assessment using water quality index and multivariate statistical analysis case study: East Matrouh, Northwestern coast, Egypt.

Rapid urbanisation has had a significant negative influence on the water bodies that flow through and around urban areas. This study aims to evaluate the water quality and analyse the suitability for drinking and irrigation uses. This study envisaged assessing the water quality status of the groundwater using the pollution index of groundwater (PIG), ecological risk index (ERI) and multivariate statistical techniques, namely cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA), that were applied to differentiate the sources of water quality variation and determine the cause of pollution in the study area. Most groundwater is unsuitable for drinking and irrigation consumption, depending on analyses. PIG values indicated high pollution levels in the studied water body, rendering it unsuitable for any practical purpose. CA results showed the impact of surface water and treatment plant on groundwater. PCA was used to identify four important factors in the groundwater, including mineral and nutrient pollution, heavy metal pollution, organic pollution and faecal contamination. The deteriorating water quality of the groundwater was demonstrated to originate from vast sources of anthropogenic activities, especially municipal sewage discharge. Study wells had greater concentrations of Cl- and Na+ in their water because seawater flows into the aquifer system and mixes with the marine aquifer matrix. Thus, the current work reveals how to employ the PIG and multivariate statistical approaches to obtain more accessible and more meaningful information about the water quality of groundwater and to identify the sources of pollution.

Advances in elemental sulfur-driven bioprocesses for wastewater treatment: From metabolic study to application.

Elemental sulfur (S0) is known to be an abundant, non-toxic material with a wide range of redox states (-2 to +6) and may serve as an excellent electron carrier in wastewater treatment. In turn, S0-driven bioprocesses, which employ S0 as electron donor or acceptor, have recently established themselves as cost-effective therefore attractive solutions for wastewater treatment. Numerous related processes have, to date, been developed from laboratory experiments into full-scale applications, including S0-driven autotrophic denitrification for nitrate removal and S0-reducing organic removal. Compared to the conventional activated sludge process, these bioprocesses require only a small amount of organic matter and produce very little sludge. There have been great efforts to characterize chemical and biogenic S0 and related functional microorganisms in order to identify the biochemical pathways, upgrade the bioprocesses, and assess the impact of the operating factors on process performance, ultimately aiming to better understand and to optimize the processes. This paper is therefore a comprehensive overview of emerging S0-driven biotechnologies, including the development of S0-driven autotrophic denitrification and S0-based sulfidogenesis, as well as the associated microbiology and biochemistry. Also reviewed here are the physicochemical characteristics of S0 and the effects that environmental factors such as pH, influent sulfur/nitrate ratio, temperature, S0 particle size and reactor configurations have on the process. Research gaps, challenges of process applications and potential areas for future research are further proposed and discussed.