Synchronous removal of CuO nanoparticles and Cu2+ by polyaluminum chloride-Enteromorpha polysaccharides: Effect of Al species and pH

Continuation of a cleaning process: Application of MNBs-coagulation process to mitigate ultrafiltration membrane fouling

The MNBs-coagulation process as a novel and cleaning enhanced coagulation process has been demonstrated to enhance the removal efficiency of hydrophilic organics. In this study, while continuing the concept of cleaning production, the MNBs-coagulation process was first applied to the ultrafiltration process and was expected to alleviate the ultrafiltration membrane fouling. This study investigated the effect of the involvement of MNBs in coagulation-ultrafiltration process (the MC-UF process) on the fouling behaviour of ultrafiltration membrane based on the calculation of membrane resistance distribution and the fitting of membrane fouling model. In addition, the NOM removal efficiency, floc characteristics analysis and membrane hydrophilicity analysis were used to illustrate the mechanism of mitigating ultrafiltration mebrane fouling by the MC-UF process. The experimental results showed that the involvement of MNBs in the coagulation-ultrafiltration process was able to reduce the irreversible fouling and TMP by 43.1 % and 41.6 % respectively. This phenomenon could be attributed to the involvement of MNBs in the coagulation process to improve the removal efficiency of hydrophilic organics and to enhance the characteristics of flocs, thus reducing the possibility of hydrophilic organics and broken flocs entering and blocking the membrane pores. In addition, the FT-IR spectral changes before and after the floc breakage were analyzed by 2D-COS technique in this study, and it was found for the first time that the participation of MNBs in the coagulation process could change the sequence of functional group transformation within the floc, and promote the generation of hydrogen bonds between flocs by hindering the generation of hydroxyl groups (-OH), and improve the shear resistance and regrowth capacity of flocs while reducing the possibility of broken flocs entering and blocking membrane pores. In summary, the MC-UF process proposed in this study can significantly mitigate ultrafiltration membrane fouling while meeting cleaning production, providing theoretical support for the application of the process to practical engineering.

Preparation and Application of Magnetic Composites Using Controllable Assembly for Use in Water Treatment: A Review

The use of magnetic composites in wastewater treatment has become widespread due to their high flocculating characteristics and ferromagnetism. This review provides an analysis and summary of the preparation and application of magnetic composites through controllable assembly for use in wastewater treatment. The applications of magnetic composites include the treatment of dye wastewater, heavy metal wastewater, microalgae suspensions, and oily wastewater. Additionally, the recycling and regeneration of magnetic composites have been investigated. In the future, further research could be focused on improving the assembly and regeneration stability of magnetic composites, such as utilizing polymers with a multibranched structure. Additionally, it would be beneficial to explore the recycling and regeneration properties of these composites.

Co-coagulation of micro-nano bubbles (MNBs) for enhanced drinking water treatment: A study on the efficiency and mechanism of a novel cleaning process

MNBs (Micro-nano bubbles) are widely used in cleaning processes for environmental treatments, but few studies have examined the interaction of MNBs with coagulation. In this study, a novel process, i.e., MNBs-coagulation, was developed for enhanced drinking water treatment. The humic acid (HA) removal efficiency was used to evaluate the effectiveness of MNBs-coagulation for drinking water treatment. The hydrolysis component ratio of polymeric aluminum chloride (PACl) with and without MNBs, the complexation strength of HA and PACl, and flocculent functional group characterization were used to analyze the mechanism of the MNBs-coagulation process to enhance drinking water treatment. The results of a Jar test showed that the MNBs-coagulation process could improve the removal efficiency of HA (up to a 27.9% increase in DOC removal). In continuous-flow experiments to remove HA, MNBs-coagulation can increase the removal efficiency of UV₂₅₄ by about 26.5% and with no significant change in turbidity. These results are attributed to the inherent hydroxyl radical generating properties of MNBs, the forced hydrolysis of PACl by MNBs to increase the Al_c percentage, and the ability of MNBs to increase the complexation strength of HA with PACl. At the same time, the MNBs-coagulation process has a strong anti-interference ability, almost no interference from anions and cations such as Cl^-, SO₄^2- and Ca²⁺, and has a good performance in natural surface water. In summary, MNBs-coagulation has strong potential for practical applications to enhance the efficiency of drinking water treatment.

Non-thermal plasma irradiated polyaluminum chloride for the heterogeneous adsorption enhancement of Cs+ and Sr2+ in a binary system

The natural ecosystem will continually deteriorate for decades by the leakage of Cs and Sr isotopes. The exploration of the new materials or techniques for the efficient treatment of radioactive wastewater is critically important. In this study, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configuration was constructed to operate the non-thermal plasma (NTP). The NTP was incorporated into the synthesis of polyaluminum chloride (PAC) in two different procedures to intensify the synthesis of PAC (NTP-PAC) and enhance the further removal of Cs and Sr from wastewater. The employment of NTP in two procedures both had significantly changed the physicochemical characteristics of PAC materials, which facilitated the further adsorption application of NTP-PAC on the treatment of Cs⁺ and Sr²⁺. Different molecular, morphological, and adsorption characteristics were confirmed to the NTP-PAC materials. The heterogeneous adsorption of the NTP-PAC can be appropriately fitted by both the pseudo-first-order kinetic model and the Elovich model. Both physisorption and chemisorption reaction mechanisms were ensured for the heterogeneous adsorption of the NTP-PAC material towards Cs⁺ and Sr²⁺, which guaranteed the excellent adsorption performance of NTP-PAC materials compared to PAC. The electron collisions caused by NTP with alum pulp created highly reactive growth precursors and intensified the nucleation and hydrolysis polymerization of PAC. The employment of NTP explicitly broadens the reaction pathways between PAC and cationic contaminants in the aqueous environment, which expands the application area of PAC materials in environmental sustainability.

Application of Polyaluminium Chloride Coagulant in Urban River Water Treatment Influenced the Microbial Community in River Sediment

Polyaluminium chloride (PAC) has been widely used as a chemical coagulant in water treatment. However, little is known about the impact of PAC performance on the microbial community in sediments. In this study, the archaeal, bacterial, and fungal communities in urban river sediments with and without PAC treatment were investigated. Prokaryotic diversity decreased at the PAC addition site (A2) and increased along with the river flow (from A3 to A4), while eukaryotic diversity was the opposite. The abundance of core microbiota showed a similar trend. For example, the dominant Proteobacteria presented the highest relative abundance in A1 (26.8%) and the lowest in A2 (15.3%), followed by A3 (17.5%) and A4 (23.0%). In contrast, Rozellomycota was more dominant in A2 (56.6%) and A3 (58.1%) than in A1 (6.2%) and A4 (16.3%). Salinity, total dissolved solids, and metal contents were identified as the key physicochemical factors affecting the assembly of core microorganisms. The predicted functions of archaea and fungi were mainly divided into methane cycling and saprotrophic nutrition, respectively, while bacterial function was more diversified. The above findings are helpful to enhance our understanding of microorganism response to PAC and have significance for water treatment within the framework of microecology.