Removal of low-concentration ammonia (1-10 ppm) from aquaculture wastewater was investigated via polysulfone (PSf)/zeolite mixed matrix membrane. PSf/zeolite mixed matrix membranes with different weight ratios (90/10, 80/20, 70/30 and 60/40 wt.%) were prepared and characterized. Results indicate that PSf/zeolite (80/20) was the most efficient membrane for removal of low-concentration ammonia. The ammonia elimination by PSf/zeolite (80/20) from aqueous solution for 10, 7, 5, 3 and 1 ppm of ammonia was 100%, 99%, 98.8%, 96% and 95% respectively. The recorded results revealed that pure water flux declined in higher loading of zeolite in the membrane matrix due to surface pore blockage caused by zeolite particles. On the other hand, ammonia elimination from water was decreased in higher contents of zeolite because of formation of cavities and macrovoids in the membrane substructure.
Phytoremediation is an environment-friendly and cost-effective method to clean the environment of heavy metal contamination. A prolonged phytotoxicity test was conducted in a single exposure. Scirpus grossus plants were grown in sand to which the diluted Pb (NO3)2 was added, with the variation of concentration were 0, 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 mg/L. It was found that Scirpus grossus plants can tolerate Pb at concentrations of up to 400 mg/L. The withering was observed on day-7 for Pb concentrations of 400 mg/L and above. 100% of the plants withered with a Pb concentration of 600 mg/L on day 65. The Pb concentration in water medium decreased while in plant tissues increased. Adsorption of Pb solution ranged between 2 to 6% for concentrations of 100 to 800 mg/L. The Bioaccumulation Coefficient and Translocation Factor of Scirpus grossus were found greater than 1, indicating that this species is a hyperaccumulator plant.
Phytoremediation is a technology to clean the environment from heavy metals contamination. The objectives of this study are to threat Pb contaminated wastewater by using phytoremediation technology and to determine if the plant can be mention as hyperaccumulator. Fifty plants of Scirpus grossus were grown in sand medium and 600 L spiked water in various Pb concentration (10, 30 and 50 mg/L) was exposed. The experiment was conducted with single exposure method, sampling time on day-1, day-14, day-28, day-42, day-70, and day-98. The analysis of Pb concentration in water, sand medium and inside the plant tissue was conducted by ICP-OES. Water samples were filtered and Pb concentration were directly analyzed, Pb in sand samples were extracted by EDTA method before analyzed, and Pb in plant tissues were extracted by wet digestion method and analyzed. The results showed that on day-28, Pb concentration in water decreased 100%, 99.9%, 99.7%, and the highest Pb uptake by plant were 1343, 4909, 3236 mg/kg for the treatment of 10, 30, and 50 mg/L respectively. The highest BC and TF were 485,261 on day-42 and 2.5295 on day-70 of treatment 30 mg/L, it can be mentioned that Scirpus grossus is a hyperaccumulator.
Macrophytes have been used to mitigate eutrophication and upgrade effluent quality via their nutrient removal capability. However, the available data are influenced by factors such as microbial activities, weather, and wastewater quality, making comparison between nutrient removal performance of different macrophytes almost impossible. In this study, phytoremediation by Spirodela polyrhiza, Salvinia molesta and Lemna sp. were carried out axenically in synthetic wastewater under controlled condition to precisely evaluate nutrient removal efficiency of NO3--N, PO43-, NH3-N, COD and pH in the water sample. The results showed that ammonia removal was rapid, significant for S. polyrhiza and Lemna sp., with efficiency of 60% and 41% respectively within 2 days. S. polyrhiza was capable of reducing 30% of the nitrate. Lemna sp. achieved the highest phosphate reduction of 86% at day 12 to mere 1.07 mg/L PO43--P. Correlation was found between COD and TC, suggesting the release of organic substances by macrophytes into the medium. All the macrophytes showed biomass increment. S. polyrhiza outperformed other macrophytes in nutrient removal despite lower biomass production. The acquired nutrient removal profiles can serve as a guideline for the selection of suitable macrophytes in wastewater treatment and to evaluate microbial activity in non-aseptic phytoremediation system.
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The development of eco-friendly and efficient technologies for treating wastewater is one of the attractive research area. Phytoremediation is considered to be a possible method for the removal of pollutants present in wastewater and recognized as a better green remediation technology. Nowadays the focus is to look for a sustainable approach in developing wastewater treatment capability. Water hyacinth is one of the ancient technology that has been still used in the modern era. Although, many papers in relation to wastewater treatment using water hyacinth have been published, recently removal of organic, inorganic and heavy metal have not been reviewed extensively. The main objective of this paper is to review the possibility of using water hyacinth for the removal of pollutants present in different types of wastewater. Water hyacinth is although reported to be as one of the most problematic plants worldwide due to its uncontrollable growth in water bodies but its quest for nutrient absorption has provided way for its usage in phytoremediation, along with the combination of herbicidal control, integratated biological control and watershed management controlling nutrient supply to control its growth. Moreover as a part of solving wastewater treatment problems in urban or industrial areas using this plant, a large number of useful byproducts can be developed like animal and fish feed, power plant energy (briquette), ethanol, biogas, composting and fiber board making. In focus to the future aspects of phytoremediation, the utilization of invasive plants in pollution abatement phytotechnologies can certainly assist for their sustainable management in treating waste water.
As Malaysia is one of the world's largest producer of palm oil, large amounts of palm oil mill effluent (POME) is generated. It was found that negatively charged components are accountable for POME color. An attempt was made to remove residual contaminants after conventional treatment using anion base resin. Adsorption experiments were carried out in fixed bed column. Various models such as the Thomas, the Yoon-Nelson, the Wolborska and BDST model were used to fit the experimental data. It was found that only the BDST model was fitted well at the initial breakthrough time. A wavelet neural network model (WNN) was developed to model the breakthrough curves in fixed bed column for multicomponent system. The results showed that the WNN model described breakthrough curves better than the commonly used models. The effects of pH, flow rate and bed depth on column performance were investigated. It was found that the highest uptake capacity was obtained at pH 3. The exhaustion time appeared to increase with increase in bed length and decrease in flow rate.
Production of Scenedesmus sp. biomass in chicken slaughterhouse wastewater (CSWW) is a promising alternative technique for commercial culture medium due to the high nutritional content of the generated biomass to be used as fish feeds. The current work deals with optimising of biomass production in CSWW using response surface methodology (RSM) as a function of two independent variables, namely temperature (10-30 °C) and photoperiod (6-24 h). The potential application of biomass yield as fish feeds was evaluated based on carbohydrate, protein and lipid contents. The results revealed that the best operating parameters for Scenedesmus sp. biomass production with high contents of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids were determined at 30 °C and after 24 h. The actual and predicted values were 2.47 vs. 3.09 g, 1.44 vs. 1.27 μg/mL, 29.9 vs. 31.60% and 25.75 vs. 28.44%, respectively. Moreover, the produced biomass has a high concentration of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) as follows: 35.91% of C15:1; 17.58% of C24:1 and 14.11% of C18:1N9T. The biomass yields have 7.98% of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5N3) which is more appropriate as fish feeds. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis of biomass revealed that the main functional groups included hydroxyl (OH), aldehyde (=C-H), alkanes and acyl chain groups. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic analysis (EDS) indicated that the surface morphology and element distribution in biomass produced in BBM and CSWW were varied. The findings have indicated that the biomass produced in CSWW has high potential as fish feeds.
In this work, a regression model obtained from response surface methodology (RSM) was proposed for the electrocoagulation (EC) treatment of textile wastewater. The Reactive Black 5 dye (RB5) was used as a model dye to evaluate the performance of the model design. The effect of initial solution pH, applied current and treatment time on RB5 removal was investigated. The total number of experiments designed by RSM amounted to 27 runs, including three repeated experimental runs at the central point. The accuracy of the model was evaluated by the F-test, coefficient of determination (R(2)), adjusted R(2) and standard deviation. The optimum conditions for RB5 removal were as follows: initial pH of 6.63, current of 0.075 A, electrolyte dose of 0.11 g/L and EC time of 50.3 min. The predicted RB5 removal was 83.3% and the percentage error between experimental and predicted results was only 3-5%. The obtained data confirm that the proposed model can be used for accurate prediction of RB5 removal. The value of the zeta potential increased with treatment time, and the X-ray diffraction pattern shows that iron complexes were found in the sludge.
Many industries discharge untreated wastewater into the environment. Heavy metals from many industrial processes end up as hazardous pollutants of wastewaters.Heavy metal pollution has increased in recent decades and there is a growing concern for the public health risk they may pose. To remove heavy metal ions from polluted waste streams, adsorption processes are among the most common and effective treatment methods. The adsorbents that are used to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous media have both advantages and disadvantages. Cost and effectiveness are two of the most prominent criteria for choosing adsorbents. Because cost is so important, great effort has been extended to study and find effective lower cost adsorbents.One class of adsorbents that is gaining considerable attention is agricultural wastes. Among many alternatives, palm oil biomasses have shown promise as effective adsorbents for removing heavy metals from wastewater. The palm oil industry has rapidly expanded in recent years, and a large amount of palm oil biomass is available. This biomass is a low-cost agricultural waste that exhibits, either in its raw form or after being processed, the potential for eliminating heavy metal ions from wastewater. In this article, we provide background information on oil palm biomass and describe studies that indicate its potential as an alternative adsorbent for removing heavy metal ions from wastewater. From having reviewed the cogent literature on this topic we are encouraged that low-cost oil-palm-related adsorbents have already demonstrated outstanding removal capabilities for various pollutants.Because cost is so important to those who choose to clean waste streams by using adsorbents, the use of cheap sources of unconventional adsorbents is increasingly being investigated. An adsorbent is considered to be inexpensive when it is readily available, is environmentally friendly, is cost-effective and be effectively used in economical processes. The advantages that oil palm biomass has includes the following:available and exists in abundance, appears to be effective technically, and can be integrated into existing processes. Despite these advantages, oil palm biomasses have disadvantages such as low adsorption capacity, increased COD, BOD and TOC. These disadvantages can be overcome by modifying the biomass either chemically or thermally. Such modification creates a charged surface and increases the heavy metal ion binding capacity of the adsorbent.
The present work was aimed at evaluating the multi-metals column adsorption of lead(II), cadmium(II) and manganese(II) ions onto natural bentonite. The bentonite clay adsorbent was characterized for physical and chemical properties using X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and cation exchange capacity. The column performance was evaluated using adsorbent bed height of 5.0 cm, with varying influent concentrations (10 mg/L and 50 mg/L) and flow rates (1.4 mL/min and 2.4 mL/min). The result shows that the breakthrough time for all metal ions ranged from 50 to 480 minutes. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained at initial concentration of 10 mg/L and flow rate of 1.4 mL/min, with 2.22 mg/g of lead(II), 1.71 mg/g of cadmium(II) and 0.37 mg/g of manganese(II). The order of metal ions removal by natural bentonite is lead(II) > cadmium(II) > manganese(II). The sorption performance and the dynamic behaviour of the column were predicted using Adams-Bohart, Thomas, and Yoon-Nelson models. The linear regression analysis demonstrated that the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models fitted well with the column adsorption data for all metal ions. The natural bentonite was effective for the treatment of wastewater laden with multi-metals, and the process parameters obtained from this work can be used at the industrial scale.
A novel wastewater treatment system consisting of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and a down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor with sulfur-redox reaction was developed for treatment of municipal sewage under low-temperature conditions. In the UASB reactor, a novel phenomenon of anaerobic sulfur oxidation occurred in the absence of oxygen, nitrite and nitrate as electron acceptors. The microorganisms involved in anaerobic sulfur oxidation have not been elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we studied the microbial communities existing in the UASB reactor that probably enhanced anaerobic sulfur oxidation. Sludge samples collected from the UASB reactor before and after sulfur oxidation were used for cloning and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of the 16S rRNA genes of the bacterial and archaeal domains. The microbial community structures of bacteria and archaea indicated that the genus Smithella and uncultured bacteria within the phylum Caldiserica were the dominant bacteria groups. Methanosaeta spp. was the dominant group of the domain archaea. The T-RFLP analysis, which was consistent with the cloning results, also yielded characteristic fingerprints for bacterial communities, whereas the archaeal community structure yielded stable microbial community. From these results, it can be presumed that these major bacteria groups, genus Smithella and uncultured bacteria within the phylum Caldiserica, probably play an important role in sulfur oxidation in UASB reactors.
The analysis of total organic carbon (TOC) by the American Public Health Association (APHA) closed-tube reflux colorimetric method requires potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), silver sulfate (AgSO4), and mercury (HgSO4) sulfate in addition to large volumes of both reagents and samples. The method relies on the release of oxygen from dichromate on heating which is consumed by carbon associated with organic compounds. The method risks environmental pollution by discharging large amounts of chromium (VI) and silver and mercury sulfates. The present method used potassium monochromate (K2CrO4) to generate the K2Cr2O7 on demand in the first phase. In addition, miniaturizing the procedure to semi microanalysis decreased the consumption of reagents and samples. In the second phase, mercury sulfate was eliminated as part of the digestion mixture through the introduction of sodium bismuthate (NaBiO3) for the removal of chlorides from the sample. The modified method, the potassium monochromate closed-tube colorimetry with sodium bismuthate chloride removal (KMCC-Bi), generates the potassium dichromate on demand and eliminates mercury sulfate. The semi microanalysis procedure leads to a 60% reduction in sample volume and ≈ 33.33 and 60% reduction in monochromate and silver sulfate consumption respectively. The LOD and LOQ were 10.17 and 33.90 mg L-1 for APHA, and 4.95 and 16.95 mg L-1 for KMCC-Bi. Recovery was between 83 to 98% APHA and 92 to 104% KMCC-Bi, while the RSD (%) ranged between 0.8 to 5.0% APHA and 0.00 to 0.62% KMCC-Bi. The method was applied for the UV-Vis spectrometry determination of COD in water and wastewater. Statistics was done by MINITAB 17 or MS Excel 2016. ᅟ Graphical abstract.
Microalgal biomass produced from the phycoremediation of wastewater represents an important protein source, lipids, and natural antioxidants and bioproducts. Therefore, the microalgal biomass and their derived compounds are used in animal and aquaculture feed as well as human nutrition and health products. Many microalgal species have shown promising potential for many bioproducts. However, significant processes to find the optimum quality and quantity of microalgal biomass are still required especially when it is used as a replacement for aquaculture feed. The limitations lie in the selection of microalgal species and their production. The present review discusses the potential generation of bioproducts from microalgal biomass resulting from the phycoremediation of wet market wastewater. The consortium approach in wastewater treatment and the comparison between biomass production and available common feeds for aquaculture were reviewed.
Steroid estrogens such as 17β-Estradiol (E2) and 17α-Ethynylestradiol (EE2) are highly potent estrogens that widely detected in environmental samples. Mathematical modelling such as concentration addition (CA) and estradiol equivalent concentration (EEQ) models are usually associated with measuring techniques to assess risk, predict the mixture response and evaluate the estrogenic activity of mixture. Wastewater has played a crucial role because wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is the major sources of estrogenic activity in aquatic environment. The aims of this is to determine E2 and EE2 concentrations in six WWTPs effluent, to predict the estrogenic activity of the WWTPs effluent using CA and EEQ models where lastly the effectiveness of two models is evaluated. Results showed that all the six WWTPs effluent had relative high E2 concentration (35.1-85.2 ng/L) compared to EE2 (0.02-1.0 ng/L). The estrogenic activity predicted by CA model was similar among the six WWTPs (105.4 ng/L), due to the similarity of individual dose potency ratio calculated by respective WWTPs. The predicted total EEQ was ranged from 35.1 EEQ-ng/L to 85.3 EEQ-ng/L, explained by high E2 concentration in WWTPs effluent and E2 EEF value that standardized to 1.0 μg/L. The CA model is more effective than EEQ model in estrogenic activity prediction because EEQ model used less data and causes disassociation from the predicted behavior. Although both models predicted relative high estrogenic activity in WWTPs effluent, dilution effects in receiving river may lower the estrogenic response to aquatic inhabitants.
Oily wastewater, especially water-oil emulsion has become serious environmental issue and received global attention. Chemical demulsifiers are widely used to treat oil-water emulsion, but the toxicity, non-recyclable and non-environmental friendly characteristic of chemical demulsifiers had limited their practical application in oil-water separation. Therefore, it is imperative to develop an efficient, simple, eco-friendly and recyclable demulsifiers for breaking up the emulsions from the oily wastewater. In this study, a magnetic demulsifier, magnetite-reduced graphene oxide (M-rGO) nanocomposites were proposed as a recyclable demulsifier to break up the surfactant stabilized crude oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. M-rGO nanocomposites were prepared via in situ chemical synthesis by using only one type Fe salt and GO solid as precursor at room temperature. The prepared composites were fully characterized by various techniques. The effect of demulsifier dosage and pH of emulsion on demulsification efficiency (ED) has been studied in detailed. The demulsification mechanism was also proposed in this study. Results showed that M-rGO nanocomposites were able to demulsify crude O/W emulsion. The ED reaches 99.48% when 0.050 wt.% of M-rGO nanocomposites were added to crude O/W emulsion (pH = 4). Besides, M-rGO nanocomposites can be recycled up to 7 cycles without showing a significant change in terms of ED. Thus, M-rGO nanocomposite is a promising demulsifier for surfactant stabilized crude O/W emulsion.
A facile dispersive-micro-solid phase extraction (D-μ-SPE) method coupled with HPLC for the analysis of selected non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in water samples was developed using a newly prepared magnetic sporopollenin-cyanopropyltriethoxysilane (MS-CNPrTEOS) sorbent. Sporopollenin homogenous microparticles of Lycopodium clavatum spores possessed accessible functional groups that facilitated surface modification. Simple modification was performed by functionalization with 3-cyanopropyltriethoxysilane (CNPrTEOS) and magnetite was introduced onto the biopolymer to simplify the extraction process. MS-CNPrTEOS was identified by infrared spectrometrywhile the morphology and the magnetic property were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), respectively. To maximize the extraction performance of ketoprofen, ibuprofen, diclofenac and mefenamic acid using the proposed MS-CNPrTEOS, important D-μ-SPE parameters were comprehensively optimized. The optimum extraction conditions were sorbent amount, 40 mg; extraction time, 5 min; desorption time; 5 min; sample volume, 15 mL; sample pH 2.0; and salt addition, 2.5% (w/v). The feasibility of the developed method was evaluated using spiked tap water, lake water, river water and waste water samples. Results showed that ketoprofen and ibuprofen were linear in the range of 1.0-1000 μg L-1whilst diclofenac and mefenamic acid were linear in the range 0.8-500 μg L-1. The results also showed good detection limits for the studied NSAIDs in the range of 0.21-0.51 μg L-1and good recoveries for spiked water samples in the range of 85.1-106.4%. The MS-CNPrTEOS proved a promising dispersive sorbent and applicable to facile and rapid assay of NSAIDs in water samples.
The pollution of water resources due to the disposal of industrial wastes that have organic material like phenol is causing worldwide concern because of their toxicity towards aquatic life, human beings and the environment. Phenol causes nervous system damage, renal kidney disease, mental retardation, cancer and anaemia. In this study, magnetic palm kernel biochar is used for removal of phenol from wastewater. The effect of parameters such as pH, agitation speed, contact time and magnetic biochar dosage are validated using design of experiments. The statistical analysis reveals that the optimum conditions for the highest removal (93.39%) of phenol are obtained at pH of 8, magnetic biochar dosage of 0.6 g, agitation speed at 180 rpm and time of 60 min with the initial concentration of 10 mg/L. The maximum adsorption capacities of phenol were found to be 10.84 mg/g and Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models match the experimental data very well and adsorption kinetic obeys a pseudo-second order. Hence, magnetic palm kernel can be a potential candidate for phenol removal from wastewater.
The mineralisation kinetics of petroleum refinery effluent (PRE) by Fenton oxidation were evaluated. Within the ambit of the experimental data generated, first-order kinetic model (FKM), generalised lumped kinetic model (GLKM), and generalized kinetic model (GKM) were tested. The obtained apparent kinetic rate constants for the initial oxidation step (k'2), their final oxidation step (k'1), and the direct conversion to endproducts step (k3') were 10.12, 3.78, and 0.24 min(-1) for GKM; 0.98, 0.98, and nil min(-1) for GLKM; and nil, nil, and >0.005 min(-1) for FKM. The findings showed that GKM is superior in estimating the mineralization kinetics.
This study focused on the isolation and characterization of high cadmium-resistant bacterial strains, possible exploitation of its cadmium-accumulation and cadmium-induced proteins. Cadmium-resistant bacterial strains designated as RZ1 and RZ2 were isolated from industrial wastewater of Penang, Malaysia. These isolates were identified as Enterobacter mori and Enterobacter sp. WS12 on the basis of phenotypic, biochemical and 16S rDNA sequence based molecular phylogenetic characteristics. Both isolates were Gram negative, cocci, and growing well in Lauria-Bertani broth medium at 35 °C temperature and pH 7.0. Results also indicated that Enterobacter mori and Enterobacter sp. WS12are capable to remove 87.75 and 85.11% of the cadmium from 100 µg ml(-1) concentration, respectively. This study indicates that these strains can be useful as an inexpensive and efficient bioremediation technology to remove and recover the cadmium from wastewater.