Cheese wastewater treatment through combined coagulation-flocculation and photo-Fenton-like advanced oxidation processes for reuse in irrigation: effect of operational parameters and phytotoxicity assessment.

The present study aims to investigate the efficiency of a combined cheese wastewater treatment approach involving coagulation with ferric chloride coupled with a photo-Fenton-like oxidation process for potential reuse in irrigation. Laboratory-scale tests were conducted, examining the effect of various operational parameters on the treatment process. Specifically, the effects of initial wastewater pH, coagulant dosage, decantation time for the coagulation process, and initial pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration, and Fe3+ and H2O2 dosages for photo-Fenton-like oxidation were studied. Coagulation was found effective at natural pH of 6 and showed a highest removal efficiency in terms of COD (50.6%), biological oxygen demand BOD5 (42.1%), turbidity (99.3%), and least sludge volume generation (11.8% v/v) for an optimum coagulant dose of 400 mg Fe3+ L-1 and 8 h of decantation time. Thereafter, photo-Fenton-like oxidation (Fe3+/H2O2/UVA-300W) of the pretreated cheese effluent enhanced the removal of COD, BOD5 and TOC to 91.2%, 91.4%, and 97.5%, respectively, using the optimized conditions (pH = 3; [Fe3+] = 5.0 × 10-4 mol L-1; [H2O2] = 0.2 mol L-1 and tirr = 24 h). This study also shows that the proposed combined process allowed a significant phytotoxicity reduction toward lentil seed germination. The obtained outcome was encouraging and supports the possible use of the treated cheese wastewater as an additional water source for agricultural irrigation.

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of hydrozincite-TiO2 nanocomposite by copper for removal of pharmaceutical pollutant mefenamic acid in aqueous solution.

Nanocomposites based on hydrozincite-TiO2 and copper-doped HZ-xCu-TiO2 (x = 0.1; 0.25; 0.35) were synthesized in a single step using the urea method. The samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM/TEM, and DRS. The study of adsorption capacity and photocatalytic efficiency of these nanocomposites have been tested on a pharmaceutical pollutant, mefenamic acid (MFA). Kinetic study of removal of MFA indicates that this pollutant was adsorbed on the surface of the synthesized phases, according to Langmuir's model. Such adsorption proved to be well adapted in a kinetic pseudo-second-order model with capacity of 13.08 mg/g for HZ-0.25Cu-TiO2. Subsequently, the kinetics of photocatalytic degradation under UV-visible irradiation was studied according to several parameters, which allowed us to optimize our experimental conditions. The nanocomposite HZ-0.25Cu-TiO2 showed significant removal efficiency of MFA. Elimination rate reached 100% after 20 min under UV-vis irradiation, and 77% after 7 h under visible light irradiation. Repeatability tests have shown that this nanocomposite is extremely stable after six photocatalytic cycles. By-products of MFA were detected by LC/MS. These photoproducts was produced by three types of reactions of hydroxylation: cyclization and cleavage of the aromatic ring. MFA underwent complete mineralization after 22 h of irradiation in the presence of the HZ-0.25Cu-TiO2.

Sol-Gel Synthesis of New TiO2 Ball/Activated Carbon Photocatalyst and Its Application for Degradation of Three Hormones: 17α-EthinylEstradiol, Estrone, and ß-Estradiol.

Many approaches have been investigated to eliminate pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plants during the last decades. However, a lack of sustainable and efficient solutions exists for the removal of hormones by advanced oxidation processes. The aim of this study was to synthesize and test new photoactive bio composites for the elimination of these molecules in wastewater effluents. The new materials were obtained from the activated carbon (AC) of Arganian spinosa tree nutshells and titanium tetrachloride by the sol gel method. SEM analysis allowed one to confirm the formation of TiO2 particles homogeneously dispersed at the surface of AC with a controlled titanium dioxide mass ratio, a specific TiO2 anatase structure, and a highly specific surface area, evidenced by ATG, XRD, and BET analysis, respectively. The obtained composites were revealed to quantitatively absorb carbamazepine (CBZ), which is used as a referred pharmaceutical, and leading to its total elimination after 40 min under irradiation with the most effective material. TiO2 high content disfavors CBZ adsorption but improves its degradation. In the presence of the composite, three hormones (17α-ethinylestradiol, estrone, and ß-estradiol) are partially adsorbed onto the composite and totally degraded after 60 min under UV light exposure. This study constitutes a promising solution for the efficient treatment of wastewater contaminated by hormones.

Development and potential performance of prepolymer in corrosion inhibition for carbon steel in 1.0 M HCl: Outlooks from experimental and computational investigations.

Diglycidyl amino benzene (DGAB) epoxy prepolymer was investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Then, we highlighted the usefulness of DGAB epoxy prepolymer to improve the resistance of carbon steel (CS) in hydrochloric acid (1.0 M HCl) using weight loss (WL), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), density functional theory (DFT) and complexation calculations, molecular dynamics (MD) and meansquaredisplacement (MSD) simulations. Highest inhibitory efficiencies for the WL, EIS and PDP methods at 10-3 M of DGAB are 90.8, 96.3 and 95.9%, respectively. SEM and AFM micrographs demonstrated that the epoxy prepolymer could effectively block the acid attack by chemisorption on the surface of the carbon steel, the high correlation coefficient and low Standard Deviation (SD) and low Sum of Squares (SS) value gave the best fit for Langmuir isotherm. PDP data suggested that the epoxy prepolymer could provide excellent corrosion performance and showed a mixed-type inhibitor with predominant cathodic effectiveness. Investigate of the inhibitory layer and the potential mechanism was conceptually evaluated using DFT, MD simulations, radial distribution function (RDF) and mean square displacement (MSD).

Nanocomposite material from TiO2 and activated carbon for the removal of pharmaceutical product sulfamethazine by combined adsorption/photocatalysis in aqueous media.

This work was dedicated to the elaboration of new composite materials based on activated carbon and titanium oxide as an ecological solution for the cleaning of water contaminated with pharmaceutical pollutants. Such new composite materials allowed the combining of adsorption and photocatalytic process, which allows a cleaning process that is low cost making them promising materials. The functionalization of the surface of activated carbon (AC) by TiO2 nanoparticles forms the core of the nanocomposite material. This was accomplished using sol-gel process with molar ratios Rn (nTi/nAC) in the range of 1/10 to 7/10 followed by a calcination step (400 °C, N2, 2 h). Using various characterization techniques, AC surface functionalization was confirmed and the formation of a TiO2 coating on the AC was noticed with TiO2 under its unique anatase crystallographic form. The study of adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of the sulfamethazine antibiotic demonstrated that the most photoactive nanocomposite corresponds to the one with Rn = 0.5. Freundlich model was proved to be a perfect fit with the experimental results stating that the adsorption is of multilayer nature on the surface of the adsorbent and with interactions between the pollutants adsorbed on its surface. The photocatalytic degradation of the remaining pharmaceutical pollutant in the solution was evidenced and essentially occurred through the involvement of hydroxyl radicals formed by the excitation of the photocatalyst. The formation of the photoproducts analyzed by the LC/MS technique implies the splitting of the sulfonamide bridge, and by the hydroxylation of the aromatic ring and the pyrimidine group.