Preparation of Clay/Biochar Composite Adsorption Particle and Performance for Ammonia Nitrogen Removal from Aqueous Solution

This study aimed to present a novel clay/biochar composite adsorption particle, which made from abandoned reed straw and clay to remove ammonia nitrogen(NH4^+-N) from micro-contaminated water. The removal performance of NH4^+-N by composite adsorption particle was monitored under different raw material proportions and initial NH4^+-N concentration. Besides, adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms were investigated to reveal the adsorption mechanisms. The results showed that NH4^+-N was effectively removed under optimal proportion of biochar, foaming agent and crosslinker with 20%, 3%, and 3%, respectively. The optimal contact time was 150 min and the best removal efficiency was 88.6% at initial NH4^+-N concentration of 20 mg L^-1. The adsorption performance was well described by the second order kinetic model and Freundlich model. The novel clay/biochar composite adsorption particle in this study demonstrated a high potential for NH4^+-N removal from surface water.

Electrochemical removal of ammonium nitrogen in high efficiency and N_(2) selectivity using non-noble single-atomic iron catalyst

Ammonia nitrogen (NH_(4)^(+)-N) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant,especially in offshore aquaculture systems.Electrochemical oxidation is very promising to remove NH_(4)^(+)-N,but suffers from the use of precious metals anodes.In this work,a robust and cheap electrocatalyst,iron single-atoms distributed in nitrogen-doped carbon (Fe-SAs/N-C),was developed for electrochemical removal of NH_(4)^(+)-N from in wastewater containing chloride.The FeSAs/N-C catalyst exhibited superior activity than that of iron nanoparticles loaded carbon(Fe-NPs/N-C),unmodified carbon and conventional Ti/IrO_(2)-TiO_(2)-RuO_(2)electrodes.And high removal efficiency (>99%) could be achieved as well as high N_(2)selectivity (99.5%) at low current density.Further experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated the indispensable role of single-atom iron in the promoted generation of chloride derived species for efficient removal of NH_(4)^(+)-N.This study provides promising inexpensive catalysts for NH_(4)^(+)-N removal in aquaculture wastewater.

Advanced purification of filtered water by aerobic IBAC

Conventional water purified processes have low removal efficiencies for low concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and micro-pollutants. The efficiency and mechanisms of a novel immobilized biological activated carbon (IBAC) process to remove those pollutants from treated potable water was investigated. Operated at a hydraulic retention time of 24 minutes, the IBAC process achieved ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and organic micro-pollutants (measured as COD equivalent) removal efficiencies of 95%, 96% and 37%, respectively. A GC/MS analysis of the organic micro-pollutants revealed that the initial 24 organic compounds in the in-coming water were reduced to 7 after the IBAC treatment. The organic micro-pollutant removal efficiency decreased with decreasing in-coming concentrations. Pollutant reduction in the IBAC process was achieved by a rapid physical adsorption on the activated carbon, which effectively retained the pollutants in the system despite the short hydraulic retention time, followed by a slower biological enzymatic degradation of the pollutants.