Herbs carbonization and activation for fast sorption of nitrate ions: a new challenge for a full treatment of groundwater pollution.

The evolution of low-cost ecotechnologies in water treatment and purification is highly increased. Face to the growing global demand for eco-friendly water treatment materials, the non-valorized herb-based biomass covering a large area could be a promising alternative. Herbs (HB) are currently one of the cheapest biomasses. Therefore, the utilization of HB for environmental applications is relevant. HB was treated and activated in this work to produce an eco-friendly adsorbent for nitrate removal from groundwater. HB was treated with modified carbonization at 220 °C to produce highly reactive biochar (BCH). Ammonium groups (AM) are immobilized covalently over the BCH surface, and then, the resulting materials BCH-AM are fully characterized. Results showed that ammonium is successfully grafted at the BCH surface, producing a highly stable material. Measurements on nitrate ion adsorption revealed that BCH-AM are of great interest as 80% of nitrate ions (NO3-) were removed. Importantly, the eco-friendly BCH-AM demonstrated the ability to easily desorb the nitrate ions using Na2CO3 as a green eluent. Parametric studies confirmed the effectiveness of the prepared adsorbent and approved that the adsorption occurred by electrostatic interactions. To demonstrate the performance of the adsorbent, BCH-AM was evaluated to remove NO3- from groundwater upstream in a water treatment plant. This work opens an immense perspective for herb biomass to be the actual challenge to resolve environmental problems.

Mixed Oxides Issued from Hydrotalcite Precursors for Toluene and CO Total Oxidation: Comparison of Preparation Method.

Catalytic total oxidation is an effective technique for the treatment of industrial VOCs. This emission is generally accompanied by the presence of other products like CO, NOx or other VOC. In this paper, the development of catalysts for the total oxidation of CO and toluene mixture is performed. For this study, Mg6Al2HT hydrotalcites precursors were synthesized by three different methods: co-precipitation, microwaves and ultrasound assisted method. Hydrotalcite precursors have been used in order to develop mixed oxides after calcination for the catalytic oxidation test. Hydrotalcite structure as well as the mixed oxides obtained after calcination was studied, by several techniques: XRD, TEM, DTA/TG, BET, N2 sorption, H2-TPR. The physico chemical studies revealed modification in the structural characteristics (surface area, porosity) as well as in reducibility properties of the formed mixed oxides. The nanocatalyst issued from microwaves synthesis was the most active in these studied reactions for the total oxidation of the mixture. Moreover, addition of CO on the reaction mixture allows obtaining a beneficial effect on the toluene oxidation.