Conductive Cotton Filters for Affordable and Efficient Water Purification

Critical review on electrooxidation and chemical reduction of azo dyes: Economic approach

Effective degradation technologies have been extensively investigated and used to remove azo dyes from wastewater for decades. However, no review dealing with both electrooxidation and chemical reduction of azo dyes from an economic and, therefore, application-relevant perspective has been found in the current literature. A novelty of this review article consists not only in the brief summarization and comparison of both methods but mainly in the evaluation of their economic side. Based on the literature survey of the last 15 years, the costs of treatment approaches published in individual research articles have been summarized, and the missing data have been calculated. A broad spectrum of advanced electrode materials and catalysts have been developed and tested for the treatment, specifically aiming to enhance the degradation performance. An outline of the global prices of electrode materials, reducing agents, and basic chemicals is involved. All additional costs are described in depth in this review. The advantages and disadvantages of respective methods are discussed. It was revealed that effective and cheap treatment approaches can be found even in advanced degradation methods. Based on the collected data, electrooxidation methods offer, on average, 30 times cheaper treatment of aqueous solutions. Concerning chemical reduction, only ZVI provided high removal of azo dyes at prices <100 $ per kg of azo dye. The factors affecting total prices should also be considered. Therefore, the basic diagram of the decision-making process is proposed. In the conclusion, challenges, future perspectives, and critical findings are described.

Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes coupled with membrane filtration for degrading antibiotic residues: A review on its potential applications, advances, and challenges

Antibiotic pollution is mainly caused by aquaculture wastewater and pharmaceuticals, which are frequently used by humans. Due to limited treatment efficiency or improper selection of treatment methods, these antibiotic residues may be very harmful in human drinking water and aquatic environments. The EAOPs coupling membrane technology (EAOPs-membrane) can play their own advantages, which can significantly improve the degradation efficiency and alleviate membrane pollution (electrochemical manners). In this context, this review mainly collecting researches and information on EAOPs-membrane treatment of antibiotic pollution published between 2012 and 2020. Discussed the different combinations of these two technologies, the mechanism of them in the system to improve the processing efficiency, prolong the working time, and stabilize the system structure. Mainly due to the synergistic effect of electrochemical behavior such as electric repulsion and in-situ oxidation, the membrane fouling in the system is alleviated. In this review it was summarized that the selection of different membrane electrode materials and their modifications. The paper also elaborates the existing challenges facing the EAOPs-membrane methods for antibiotic pollution treatment, and their prospects.

Nanomaterials for Environmental Purification and Energy Conversion

Nanomaterials, engineered structures of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 to 100 nm, are probably the fastest growing market in the world [...]

Integration of Green Energy and Advanced Energy-Efficient Technologies for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Wastewater treatment can consume a large amount of energy to meet discharge standards. However, wastewater also contains resources which could be recovered for secondary uses under proper treatment. Hence, the goal of this paper is to review the available green energy and biomass energy that can be utilized in wastewater treatment plants. Comprehensive elucidation of energy-efficient technologies for wastewater treatment plants are revealed. For these energy-efficient technologies, this review provides an introduction and current application status of these technologies as well as key performance indicators for the integration of green energy and energy-efficient technologies. There are several assessment perspectives summarized in the evaluation of the integration of green energy and energy-efficient technologies in wastewater treatment plants. To overcome the challenges in wastewater treatment plants, the Internet of Things (IoT) and green chemistry technologies for the water and energy nexus are proposed. The findings of this review are highly beneficial for the development of green energy and energy-efficient wastewater treatment plants. Future research should investigate the integration of green infrastructure and ecologically advanced treatment technologies to explore the potential benefits and advantages.

Conductive 3D sponges for affordable and highly-efficient water purification

Effective, affordable and low energy water purification technologies are highly desirable to address the current environmental issues. In this study, we developed a low-cost method to achieve efficient organic pollutants degradation by incorporating conductive nanomaterials (i.e., carbon nanotubes, CNTs) to assist electro-oxidation, leading to an efficient conductive nano-sponge filtration device. The integration of electrochemistry has significantly improved the performance of the sponge-based device to adsorb and oxidize organic compounds in aqueous solution. In particular, CNT materials could serve as both high-performance electro-catalysts for pollutant degradation and conductive additives that make polyurethane sponges highly conductive. On the other hand, the polyurethane sponge could work as a low-cost and highly porous matrix that could effectively host these CNT conductors. The conductive sponge can be easily fabricated by a simple dying based approach. The as-fabricated gravity fed device could effectively oxidize two model organic compounds (i.e., >92% antibiotic tetracycline and >94% methyl orange) via a single pass through the conductive sponge under the optimized experimental conditions (e.g., [Na₂SO₄] = 10 mmol L^-1, [CNT] = 0.3 mg mL^-1, and [SDBS] = 2.0 mg mL^-1). We have achieved >88% degradation efficiency for the antibiotic tetracycline within 6 h of continuous operation with an average electro-oxidation flux of 0.82 ± 0.05 mol h^-1 m^-2 and an energy requirement of 1.0 kW h kg^-1 COD or <0.02 kW h m^-3. These promising data make our CNT-sponge filtration device attractive for affordable and effective water purification.