Removal of Cu(II) and Zn(II) from industrial wastewater by acid-activated montmorillonite-illite type of clay

An acid-activated montmorillonite-illite type of clay collected from the Gulbarga region of Karnataka, India was examined for removing copper and zinc ions from industrial wastewater containing Cu(II), Zn(II) and minor amounts of Pb(II). Langmuir, Freundlich, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and competitive Langmuir (two competing ions) isotherms were fitted to experimental data and the goodness of their fit for adsorption was compared. The shapes of isotherms obtained indicated multilayer adsorption of Cu(II) and monolayer adsorption of Zn(II) on the acid-activated clay. Competitive adsorption was found to be significant due to the presence of Cu(II) in the wastewater.     

Rapid automated screening, identification and quantification of organic micro-contaminants and their main transformation products in wastewater and river waters using liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry with an accurate-mass database

In this study we have developed and evaluated an analytical method for a rapid automated screening and confirmation of a large number of organic micro-contaminants (almost 400) and also the quantification of the positive findings in water samples of different types (surface and wastewaters) using liquid chromatography-electrospray quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOFMS) based on the use of an accurate-mass database. The created database includes data not only on the accurate masses of the target ions but also on the characteristic in-source fragment ions, isotopic pattern and retention time data. This customized database was linked to commercially available software which extracted all the potential compounds of interest from the LC-QTOFMS raw data of each sample and matched them against the database to search for targeted compounds in the sample. The detailed fragmentation information has also been used as a powerful tool for the automatic identification of unknown compounds and/or transformation products with similar structures to those of known organic contaminants included in the database. The database can be continually enlarged. To confirm identification of compounds which have no fragment ions (or fragments with low intensity/relative abundance) from in-source CID fragmentation or isomers which are not distinguished within full single mass spectra, a "Targeted MS/MS" method is developed. Thereafter, these compounds can be further analyzed using the collision energy (CE) in QTOF-MS/MS mode. Linearity and limits of detection were studied. Method detection limits (MDLs) in effluent wastewater and river waters were, in most cases, lowers or equal to 5 and 2 ng/L, respectively. Only 15 compounds had MDLs between 5 and 50 ng/L in effluent wastewater matrix. We obtained a linearity of the calibration curves over two orders of magnitude. The method has been applied to real samples and the results obtained reveal that most of the pharmaceutically active compounds contained in the created database were present in the water samples with concentrations in the range of ng/L and μg/L levels and in most of the samples between 2 and 15 pesticides of the 300 contained in the database were also detected. In addition to the compounds included in the database, some degradation products were found, thus revealing the method as a useful tool for the analysis of organic micro-contaminants in waters.     

含油废水紫外荧光信息管理系统的开发

针对含油废水的荧光信息管理,基于管理信息系统(MIS)系统,根据面向对象的程序设计要求,分析了含油废水紫外荧光信息管理系统的建设目标、体系结构、数据组织、模块功能等,使用Visual FoxPro开发了用于典型行业的含油废水紫外荧光信息管理系统,实现了对样本进行处理时信息的输入、查询、删除、对比以及数据输出等功能.使得...     

Mixed silica and alumina hosted carboxylate oxide for removal of chromium species from wastewater

Increasing in the use of various chromium species over the past few decades has inevitably resulted in an increased flux of their metallic substances in aquatic life. Therefore, experimental work was developed to improve the physical and chemical characteristics of the prepared mesoporous SiO₂–Al₂O₃ mixed oxides via a sol–gel process. The effective key parameter on the properties of the materials was achieved by the addition of carboxylate functional group such as Alph-hydroxyl isobuteric acid (AHIBA) during the gelation process and prior the calcinations step. Better performance of these carboxylate resins are attributed to the complexing ability of the carboxylate groups toward polyvalent chromium species which is added to the normal sorption properties of the oxides. Urea has been used as a means of producing an aluminum precipitate that is easier to filter than that produced by rapid addition of base. Introduction of Al and Si salts together to form mixed oxide modified the way of their substitution in the hosting resin than when they were separately added. The data revealed that mesoporous materials with very narrow pore diameter distribution (micron-sized) and high surface area were obtained. The surface areas and pore size distributions were mainly depend on SiO₂ content. Systematic investigations were carried out on the set of the prepared mixed oxides with different porosity, cross-linking degree and exchange loading to find out the best sorbent for chromium removal. The final objective in all cases was aimed at determining feasible and economically reliable solution to the environmental problems related to the tannery industry.     

A study of irradiation in the treatment of wastewater

A grafting copolymer of starch and acrylamide was prepared by ⁶⁰Co-γ pre-irradiation. After purification, the copolymer was modified by a cationic reaction to form a cationic copolymer. The structure of the cationic copolymer was identified by IR and NMR spectroscopy. Using the industrial and sanitary municipal wastewater from the Factory of Wastewater Treatment of Gaobeidian in Beijing as the study sample, three-treatment methods: flocculation deposition, flocculation deposition combined with γ irradiation and the direct irradiation were carried out. COD was applied to evaluate the treatment effect. The preliminary results show that the method of flocculation deposition combined with γ irradiation was effective than the other two.     

Uncertainty of chemical oxygen demand determination in wastewater samples

 The measurement uncertainty of the result of chemical oxygen demand determination in wastewater was evaluated. The major sources of uncertainty of the result of measurement were identified as the purity of reagents, volumetric operations, gravimetric operations, bias, and the repeatability of the method. Identification and evaluation of uncertainty sources was followed by combined uncertainty calculations. The combined uncertainty was compared to the experimentally determined variation and good agreement was found, indicating that the major uncertainty sources had been identified. The results show that the major sources of uncertainty arose from repeatability at high concentration level and volumetric steps at low concentration level, thus revealing the target operations for reducing the measurement uncertainty of this determination. Received: 5 August 2002 Accepted: 5 November 2002 Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia (Project Z2–3530). Presented at CERMM-3, Central European Reference Materials and Measurements Conference: The function of reference materials in the measurement process, May 30–June 1, 2002, Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia Correspondence to A. Drolc     

Determination of four acidic nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs in wastewater samples by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet and high‐performance liquid chromatography

A simple, environmentally friendly, and sensitive dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet for the extraction of four acidic nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (ketoprofen, naproxen, ibuprofen, and diclofenac) from wastewater samples subsequent by high‐performance liquid chromatography analysis was developed. The influence of extraction parameters such as pH, the effect of solution ionic strength, type of extraction solvent, disperser solvent, and extraction solvent volume were studied. High enrichment factors (283–302) were obtained through the developed method. The method provides good linearity (r > 0.999) in a concentration range of 1–100 μg/L, good intra‐ and inter‐day precision (relative standard deviation < 7%) and low limits of quantification. The relative recoveries of the selected compounds were situated over 80% both in synthetic and real water samples. The developed method has been successfully applied for the analysis of the selected compounds in wastewater samples.     

Heterogeneous Fenton-like reactions with a novel hybrid Cu–Mn–O catalyst for the degradation of benzophenone-3 in aqueous media

This study focuses on the heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction performed over a novel hybrid Cu–Mn–O catalyst for the degradation of a model compound benzophenone-3 (BP-3) in aqueous media. The hybrid Cu–Mn–O catalysts with different Cu/Mn molar ratios were synthesized using co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods, and their composition and morphology were characterized using XRD and SEM analyses. Key parameters including the Cu/Mn ratio in the synthesis, pH and titration of H₂O₂ were shown to significantly influence the degradation of BP-3. A hybrid catalyst with a chemical composition of Cu_1.4Mn_1.6O₄, Mn₃O₄, and Mn₂O₃ exhibiting a morphology of nanofibers and nanoparticles demonstrated the highest catalytic activity in the degradation of BP-3. After 240 min of degradation, 81.5% of BP-3 was removed, which could be mostly related to the presence of hydroxyl radicals (˙OH). Unlike the conventional Fenton reaction that performs well under highly acidic conditions, BP-3 can be degraded in a wider pH range (2.6–7.1) in the Fenton-like reaction presented herein. Considering the mild conditions used for this Fenton-like system, this novel hybrid catalyst remains promising for wastewater treatment.     

Ecotoxicity of, and remediation with, engineered inorganic nanoparticles in the environment

This article presents recent developments on the use of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) for environmental remediation in polluted soil, water and gas. The number of publications on these topics has grown exponentially in recent years, especially those focused on wastewater treatment. Among these topics, removal of metals has become the most popular, although some works relate to the use of nanomaterials for the elimination of nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and some persistent organic pollutants). However, this growth has not been accompanied by knowledge about the behavior of NPs once used and released into the environment. In this article, we also comment upon the current situation with respect to NP toxicology (nanotoxicology). A remarkable number of different toxicology tests has been applied to NPs, often making it very difficult to interpret or to generalize the results. We analyze in detail the bioluminescence, Daphnia magna and other tests, and give some preliminary results obtained in our work.     

Pyrolysis GC/MS analysis of a bacterial population in a saline activated sludge system—Identification of the origin of the pyrolysis product 2-methylpyrimidine

During the investigation of problems with the physical handling of sludge from a saline activated sludge wastewater system, pyrolysis/GC/MS was used in an attempt to determine whether changes in the bacterial population in the sludge were occurring. The pyrolysis GC/MS analysis revealed an unknown peak among other typical bacterial pyrolysis products. This unknown was identified as 2-methylpyrimidine. This pyrolysis product was only found in appreciable amounts in samples from other saline systems but not in freshwater systems analyzed as points of comparison for the system of concern. Further investigation confirmed the source of 2-methylpyrimidine to be ectoine, a compound produced by halophilic bacteria as a compatible solute for osmoadaptation. Pyrolysis GC/MS was shown to be a useful tool to indicate the presence of ectoine in halophilic bacteria.