Agricultural Solid Wastes Based Adsorbent Materials in the Remediation of Heavy Metal Ions from Water and Wastewater by Adsorption: A Review.

Adsorption has become the most popular and effective separation technique that is used across the water and wastewater treatment industries. However, the present research direction is focused on the development of various solid waste-based adsorbents as an alternative to costly commercial activated carbon adsorbents, which make the adsorptive separation process more effective, and on popularising the sustainable options for the remediation of pollutants. Therefore, there are a large number of reported results available on the application of raw or treated agricultural biomass-based alternatives as effective adsorbents for aqueous-phase heavy metal ion removal in batch adsorption studies. The goal of this review article was to provide a comprehensive compilation of scattered literature information and an up-to-date overview of the development of the current state of knowledge, based on various batch adsorption research papers that utilised a wide range of raw, modified, and treated agricultural solid waste biomass-based adsorbents for the adsorptive removal of aqueous-phase heavy metal ions. Metal ion pollution and its source, toxicity effects, and treatment technologies, mainly via adsorption, have been reviewed here in detail. Emphasis has been placed on the removal of heavy metal ions using a wide range of agricultural by-product-based adsorbents under various physicochemical process conditions. Information available in the literature on various important influential physicochemical process parameters, such as the metal concentration, agricultural solid waste adsorbent dose, solution pH, and solution temperature, and importantly, the adsorbent characteristics of metal ion removal, have been reviewed and critically analysed here. Finally, from the literature reviewed, future perspectives and conclusions were presented, and a few future research directions have been proposed.

Parametric and kinetic studies of activated sludge dewatering by cationic chitosan-like bioflocculant BF01314 produced from Citrobacter youngae.

Bacterial strains belonging to Citrobacter spp. were reported to produce polysaccharides consisting of N-acetylglucosamine and glucosamine like chitosan, with high flocculation activity. In this work, the flocculation dewatering performance of activated sludge conditioned by a novel cationic chitosan-like bioflocculant (BF) named BF01314, produced from Citrobacter youngae GTC 01314, was evaluated under the influences of flocculant dosage, pH, and temperature. At BF dosage as low as 0.5 kg/t DS, the sludge dewaterability was significantly enhanced in comparison to the raw (untreated) sludge, featuring well-flocculated characteristic (reduction in CST from 22.0 s to 9.4 s) and good sludge filterability with reduced resistance (reduction in SRF by one order from 7.42 × 1011 to 9.59 × 1010 m/kg) and increased compactness of sludge (increase in CSC from 15.2 to 23.2%). Besides, the BF demonstrated comparable high sludge dewatering performance within the pH range between 2 and 8, and temperature range between 25 °C and 80 °C. Comparison between the BF, the pristine chitosan and the commercial cationic copolymer MF 7861 demonstrated equivalent performance with enhanced dewaterability at the dosage between 2.0 and 3.0 kg/t DS. Besides, the BF demonstrated strong flocculation activity (>99%) when added to the sludge suspension using moderate to high flocculation speeds (100-200 rpm) with at least 3-min mixing time. The BF's reaction in sludge flocculation was best fitted with a pseudo first-order kinetic model. Electrostatic charge patching and polymer bridging mechanisms are believed to be the dominant mechanistic phenomena during the BF's sludge conditioning process (coagulation-flocculation).

Synergistic effects of microplastics and organic foulants on the performance of forward osmosis membranes.

Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants that are abundantly present in the influent and effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Forward osmosis (FO) is an advanced treatment technology with potential applications in WWTPs. The presence of MPs in WWTP effluents can contribute to FO fouling and performance deterioration. This study focuses on FO membrane fouling by MPs of different sizes, and the interactional impacts of MPs and Humic acid (HA) (as the most common organic foulant in WWTPs) on FO membrane performance. The synergistic effect of combined MPs and HA fouling is shown to cause higher flux decline for FO membranes than that of HA or MPs alone. Reverse salt flux increased in the presence of MPs, and decreased when HA was present. Further, full flux recovery was obtained for all fouled membranes after hydraulic cleaning. This indicates the efficiency of FO systems for treating wastewater with high fouling potential. This study highlights the necessity of considering MPs in studying fouling behaviour, and for mitigation strategies of membranes used in WWT. The fundamentals created here can be further extended to other membrane-assisted separation processes.

Performance and dynamic modelling of biochar and kaolin packed bed adsorption column for aqueous phase methylene blue (MB) dye removal.

A practical continuous adsorption study in a packed-bed column was conducted by using two separate layers of kaolin and pine cone based biochar packed bed adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye from its aqueous solution. A series of column experiments were performed to determine the breakthrough curves (BTCs) by varying bed height (3-7 cm), inlet flow rate (13-17 ml/min) and initial dye concentration (50-150 mg/L). The Thomas, Yoon-Nelson, Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) and Dose response (DR) dynamic models were applied to column experimental data under various operational conditions to predict the column breakthrough curves (BTC) using both nonlinear regression and linear regression and to determine various characteristic parameters such as percentage removal of dye, breakthrough time, used bed length, mass transfer zone (MTZ) and dye adsorption density q(total) that are useful for process design. The MB dye adsorption was found to be most favourable under low flow rate, high adsorbent bed height and high initial dye concentrations. The experimental column breakthrough data were in good agreement with the various dynamic models and the results of various model characteristic parameters could be used to scale up the process to an actual industrial column operation. Also, this column study revealed the feasibility of pine cone biochar and kaolin adsorbents as alternative sustainable adsorbents for dye-bearing wastewater treatment.

A comprehensive review on rheological studies of sludge from various sections of municipal wastewater treatment plants for enhancement of process performance.

Large quantities of sludge is generated from different sections of a wastewater treatment plant operation. Sludge can be a solid, semisolid or liquid muddy residual material. Understanding the flow behaviour and rheological properties of sewage sludge at different sections of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is important for the design of pumping system, mixing, hydrodynamics and mass transfer rates of various sludge treatment units, optimization of conditioning dose and for sustainable sludge management. The current article provides a comprehensive review on up to date literature information on rheological behaviour of raw primary sludge, excess activated sludge, thickened excess activated sludge, mixture of raw primary and thickened excess activated sludge (mixed sludge), digested sludge, and biosolid under the influence of different operating parameters and their impacts on process performance. The influences of various process parameters such as solid concentration, temperature, pH, floc particle size, primary to secondary sludge mixing ratio, aging and conditioning agent doses on the rheological behaviour of sludge from different treatment units of WWTPs are critically analysed here. Yield stress was reported to increase with increasing solid concentration for all types of sludge whereas viscosity showed a decreasing trend with decreasing total solid concentration and percentage of thickened excess activated sludge in the mixture. Temperature showed an inverse relationship with yield stress and viscosity. Viscosity was reported to be decreased with decrease in pH. The effect of various conditioning agents on the rheological behaviour of sludge are also discussed here. The applicability and practical significance of various rheological models such as Bingham, Power Law (Ostwald), Herschel-Bulkley, Casson, Sisko, Careau, and Cross models to experimental rheological characteristics of various sludges were presented here. The reported results on various rheological parameters such as shear stress, yield stress, flow index, infinite, zero-rate viscosity, and flow consistency index of different sludge types obtained from the best fitted model were also compiled here. Conclusions have been drawn from the literature reviewed and few suggestions for future research direction are proposed.

Synthesis and characterization of slow pyrolysis pine cone bio-char in the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from aqueous solution by adsorption: Kinetic, equilibrium, mechanism and thermodynamic.

Pine cone bio-char was synthesized through slow pyrolysis at 500°C, characterized and used as an effective adsorbent in the removal of organic Methylene Blue (MB) dye and inorganic nickel metal (Ni(II) ions from aqueous phase. Batch adsorption kinetic study was carried out by varying solution pH, dye concentration, temperature, adsorbent dose and contact time. Kinetic and isotherm models indicates that the adsorption of both adsorbates onto pine cone bio-char were mainly by chemisorption. Langmuir maximum adsorption capability was found to be 106.4 and 117.7mg/g for Methylene Blue (MB) and nickel ions (NI(II) respectively. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that the adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous. These results indicate the applicability of pine cone as a cheap precursor for the sustainable production of cost-effective and environmental friendly bio-char adsorbent.

Dye and its removal from aqueous solution by adsorption: a review.

In this review article the authors presented up to-date development on the application of adsorption in the removal of dyes from aqueous solution. This review article provides extensive literature information about dyes, its classification and toxicity, various treatment methods, and dye adsorption characteristics by various adsorbents. One of the objectives of this review article is to organise the scattered available information on various aspects on a wide range of potentially effective adsorbents in the removal of dyes. Therefore, an extensive list of various adsorbents such as natural materials, waste materials from industry, agricultural by-products, and biomass based activated carbon in the removal of various dyes has been compiled here. Dye bearing waste treatment by adsorption using low cost alternative adsorbent is a demanding area as it has double benefits i.e. water treatment and waste management. Further, activated carbon from biomass has the advantage of offering an effected low cost replacement for non-renewable coal based granular activated carbon provided that they have similar or better adsorption on efficiency. The effectiveness of various adsorbents under different physico-chemical process parameters and their comparative adsorption capacity towards dye adsorption has also been presented. This review paper also includes the affective adsorption factors of dye such as solution pH, initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, and temperature. The applicability of various adsorption kinetic models and isotherm models for dye removal by wide range of adsorbents is also reported here. Conclusions have been drawn from the literature reviewed and few suggestions for future research are proposed.

The performance enhancements of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for domestic sludge treatment--a state-of-the-art review.

Nowadays, carbon emission and therefore carbon footprint of water utilities is an important issue. In this respect, we should consider the opportunities to reduce carbon footprint for small and large wastewater treatment plants. The use of anaerobic rather than aerobic treatment processes would achieve this aim because no aeration is required and the generation of methane can be used within the plant. High-rate anaerobic digesters receive great interests due to their high loading capacity and low sludge production. Among them, the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors have been most widely used. However, there are still unresolved issues inhibiting the widespread of this technology in developing countries or countries with climate temperature fluctuations (such as subtropical regions). A large number of studies have been carried out in order to enhance the performance of UASB reactors but there is a lack of updated documentation. In face of the existing limitations and the increasing importance of this technology, the authors present an up-to-date review on the performance enhancements of UASB reactors over the last decade. The important aspects of this article are: (i) enhancing the start-up and granulation in UASB reactors, (ii) coupling with post-treatment unit to overcome the temperature constraint, and (iii) improving the removal efficiencies of the organic matter, nutrients and pathogens in the final effluent. Finally the authors have highlighted future research direction based on their critical analysis.

Removal of anionic dye Congo red from aqueous solution by raw pine and acid-treated pine cone powder as adsorbent: equilibrium, thermodynamic, kinetics, mechanism and process design.

Pine cone a natural, low-cost agricultural by-product in Australia has been studied for its potential application as an adsorbent in its raw and hydrochloric acid modified form. Surface study of pine cone and treated pine cone was investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The modification process leads to increases in the specific surface area and decreases mean particle sizes of acid-treated pine cone when compared to raw pine cone biomass. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to remove anionic dye Congo red from aqueous solution. It was found that the extent of Congo red adsorption by both raw pine cone biomass and acid-treated biomass increased with initial dye concentration, contact time, temperature but decreased with increasing solution pH and amount of adsorbent of the system. Overall, kinetic studies showed that the dye adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics based on pseudo-first-order and intra-particle diffusion models. The different kinetic parameters including rate constant, half-adsorption time, and diffusion coefficient were determined at different physico-chemical conditions. Equilibrium data were best represented by Freundlich isotherm model among Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. It was observed that the adsorption was pH dependent and the maximum adsorption of 32.65 mg/g occurred at pH of 3.55 for an initial dye concentration of 20 ppm by raw pine cone, whereas for acid-treated pine cone the maximum adsorption of 40.19 mg/g for the same experimental conditions. Freundlich constant 'n' also indicated favourable adsorption. Thermodynamic parameters such as ∆G(0), ∆H(0), and ∆S(0) were calculated. A single-stage batch absorber design for the Congo red adsorption onto pine cone biomass also presented based on the Freundlich isotherm model equation.

Removal of mercury(II) from aqueous solutions using the leaves of the Rambai tree (Baccaurea motleyana).

This study was undertaken to evaluate the biosorption potential of a natural, low-cost biosorbent, Rambai leaves (Baccaurea motleyana), to remove trace amounts of Hg(II) from aqueous solutions. It was found that the amount of Hg(II) biosorption by Rambai leaves increased with initial metal ion concentration, contact time, and solution pH but decreased as the amount of biosorbent increased. The maximum biosorption capacity was 121.95 mg/g for an initial concentration range of 5 to 120 ppb. Overall, kinetic studies showed that the Hg(II) biosorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics based on pseudo-first-order and intraparticle diffusion models. Isotherm data revealed that the biosorption process followed both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. The value of separation factor, R(L), from the Langmuir equation and rate of biosorption, n, from the Freundlich model also indicated favorable adsorption.