Green Synthesis of Magnetic Adsorbent Using Groundwater Treatment Sludge for Tetracycline Adsorption

Groundwater treatment sludge is an industrial waste that is massively produced from groundwater treatment plants.Conventional methods for treatment of this sludge,such as discharge into deep wells or the sea,or disposal at landfills,are not environmentally sustainable.Here,we demonstrate an alternative strategy to recycle the sludge by preparing a magnetic maghemite adsorbent via a one-step hydrothermal method with NaOH solution as the only solvent.With this method,the weakly magnetized sludge,which contained 33.2%iron(Fe)and other impurities(e.g.,silicon(Si),aluminum(Al),and manganese(Mn)),was converted to magnetic adsorbent(MA)with the dissolution of Si/Al oxides(e.g.,quartz and albite)into the liquid fraction.At a NaOH concentration of 2 mol L^-1,approximately 18.1%of the ferrihydrite in the Fe oxides of the sludge was converted into 11.2%maghemite and 6.9%hematite after the hydrothermal treatment.MA2(i.e.,MA produced by a 2 mol L^-1 NaOH concentration)exhibited a good magnetic response of 8.2 emu g^-1(1 emu=10^-3 A m^2),and a desirable surface site concentration of 0.75 mmol g^-1.The synthesized MA2 was used to adsorb the cationic pollutant tetracycline(TC).The adsorption kinetics of TC onto MA2 fitted well with a pseudo-second-order model,and the adsorption isotherms complied well with the Langmuir model.The maximum adsorption capacity of MA2 for TC was 362.3 mg g^-1,and the main mechanism for TC adsorption was cationic exchange.This study is the first to demonstrate the preparation of an MA from recycled sludge without a reductant and/or exogenous Fe source.The prepared adsorbent can be used as a low-cost adsorbent with high capacity for TC sorption in the treatment of TC-containing wastewater.

Adsorption of Quaternary Ammonium Compounds onto Activated Sludge

The performance of activated sludge in the removal of tetradecyl benzyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (C14BDMA) by adsorption from aqueous solution was investigated with different PH, contact time, ionic strength and temperature. Equilibrium was achieved within 2 h of contact time. The adsorption capacity increased largely with increasing solution pH and remained constant above pH 9. The ionic strength had a negative effect on C14BDMA removal. The adsorption isotherms were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, and equilibrium partitioning data was described well by both models. Kinetics data was best described by the pseudo second-order model. Experimental results indicated that the adsorption was favorable at lower temperatures. Thermodynamic parameters, including the Gibbs free energy (ΔG0), enthalpy (ΔH0), and entropy (ΔS0), were also calculated. These parameters indicated that adsorption of C14BDMA onto activated sludge was feasible, spontaneous and exothermic in the temperature range of 15-35℃. The activated sludge was shown to be an effective adsorbent for C14BDMA.

From pollutant to solution of wastewater pollution: Synthesis of activated carbon from textile sludge for dye adsorption

Adsorption is an important process in wastewater treatment,and conversion of waste materials to adsorbent offers a solution to high material cost related to the use of commercial activated carbon.This study investigated the adsorption behaviour of Reactive Black 5(RB5)and methylene blue(MB)onto activated carbon produced from textile sludge(TSAC).The activated carbon was synthesized through chemical activation of precursor followed with carbonization at 650°C under nitrogen flow.Effects of time(0–200 min),pH(2–10),temperature(25–60°C),initial dye concentration(0–200 mg·L^(-1)),and adsorbent dosage(0.01–0.15 g)on dye removal efficiency were investigated.Preliminary screening revealed that TSAC synthesized via H_2SO_4activation showed higher adsorption behaviour than TSAC activated by KCl and ZnCl_2.The adsorption capacity of TSAC was found to be 11.98 mg·g^(-1)(RB5)and 13.27 mg·g^(-1)(MB),and is dependent on adsorption time and initial dye concentration.The adsorption data for both dyes were well fitted to Freundlich isotherm model which explains the heterogeneous nature of TSAC surface.The dye adsorption obeyed pseudo-second order kinetic model,thus chemisorption was the controlling step.This study reveals potential of textile sludge in removal of dyes from aqueous solution,and further studies are required to establish the applicability of the synthesized adsorbent for the treatment of waste water containing toxic dyes from textile industry.

Effects of metallic derivatives in adsorbent derived from sewage sludge on adsorption of sulfur dioxide

The sewage sludge was used to produce adsorbent by controlling the pyrolytic and chemical conditions. Using the adsorbent derived from sewage sludge to adsorb the low concentration SO2 in fixed bed system, the effects of the metallic derivatives on characteristics of the adsorbent were investigated at different compositions of the gaseous mixtures. The results show that when the mass fraction of vanadium reaches 0.5% and the mass fraction of （iron,） calcium, copper, nickel reach approximately 0.9%, under the condition that the adsorption mixture contains （0.12%SO2,） 3%O2 and 10% water vapor, the maximum adsorption capacity of SO2 can be obtained to be 128, 109, 90, 82, 78 mg·g-1, respectively. So the metallic derivatives fixed onto adsorbent derived from sewage sludge especially vanadium have great effects on of the sorption characteristics of the adsorbent with respect to SO2.

Adsorption of acid and basic dyes by sludge-based activated carbon:Isotherm and kinetic studies

A batch experiment was conducted to investigate the adsorption of an acid dye(Acid Orange 51) and a basic dye(Safranine) from aqueous solutions by the sludge-based activated carbon(SBAC). The results show that the adsorption of Acid Orange 51 decreases at high p H values, whereas the uptake of Safranine is higher in neutral and alkaline solutions than that in acidic conditions. The adsorption time needed for Safranine to reach equilibrium is shorter than that for Acid Orange 51. The uptakes of the dyes both increase with temperature increasing, indicating that the adsorption process of the dyes onto SBAC is endothermic. The equilibrium data of the dyes are both best represented by the Redlich-Peterson model. At 25 °C, the maximum adsorption capacities of SBAC for Acid Orange 51 and Safranine are 248.70 mg/g and 525.84 mg/g, respectively. The Elovich model is found to best describe the adsorption process of both dyes, indicating that the rate-limiting step involves the chemisorption. It can be concluded that SBAC is a promising material for the removal of Acid Orange 51 and Safranine from aqueous solutions.

A solid-phase extraction approach for the identification of pharmaceutical–sludge adsorption mechanisms

It is important to understand the adsorption mechanism of chemicals and active pharmaceu-tical ingredients （API） on sewage sludge since wastewater treatment plants are the last barrier before the release of these compounds to the environment. Adsorption models were developed considering mostly hydrophobic API-sludge interaction. They have poor predictive ability, especially with ionisable compounds. This work proposes a solid-phase extraction （SPE） approach to estimate rapidly the API-sludge interaction. Sludge-filled SPE cartridges could not be percolated with API spiked mobile phases so different powders were tested as SPE sludge supports. Polytetrafluoroethylene （PTFE） was selected and tested at different PTFE/sludge ratios under eight different adsorption conditions with three API ionisable compounds. The PTFE/sludge mixtures with 50% or less sludge could be used in SPE mode for API sorption studies with methanol/water liquid phases. The results gave insights into API-sludge interactions. It was found that π-π, hydrogen-bonding and charge-charge interactions were as important as hydrophobicity in the adsorption mechanism of charged APIs on sludge.

Effect of Alkali Treatment on Heavy Metals Adsorption Capacity of Sewage Sludge

Sewage sludge is the promising raw material for biosorbent preparation. In this work, we evaluated the heavy metals adsorption characteristics of alkali treated sewage sludge (ATSS) by equilibrium studies. The adsorption isotherms were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich models. Comparing with untreated sewage sludge, the total adsorption capacity (qm) of ATSS (prepared with 0.125 mol/L NaOH) for Cd, Pb, Ni, increased by 0.51, 0.70 and 0.32 mmol/g, respectively. When the NaOH concentration for ATSS preparation increased from 0.125 mol/L to 0.25 mol/L, the qm of ATSS for Pb decreased from 1.05 mmol/g to 0.84 mmol/g. However, when the NaOH concentration increased from 0.25 mol/L to 7.5 mol/L, it showed increasing trend. According to the IR spectra data, the adsorption effect of biosorbent for heavy metals was mainly due to the complexation of -N-H groups and -COOH groups.

A Sewage Sludge Derived Composite Material for Adsorption of Antibiotics – Kinetics

A novel sewage-sludge derived composite material was developed for the adsorptive removal of organic pollutants from water. In this study a batch adsorption study was carried out to examine the kinetics of antibiotics adsorption by this composite material. A pseudo-second order kinetics model fits the data extremely well, suggesting that chemical adsorption, rather than physical adsorption, is likely the main mechanism of the separation process.

Study on cationic dye adsorption of bio-chars prepared from thermal-alkaline-pretreated sludge

Sludge bio-char(SC)and thermal-alkaline treated sludge bio-char(TSC)were prepared from municipal sewage sludge(RS)and thermal-alkaline treated sludge sediments(STAS)through fast pyrolysis under nitrogen existence condition to remove cationic red X-GRL(A)and cationic yellow X-6G(B)from aqueous solutions.Results of adsorption experiment show that the adsorption capacities of TSC are better than the adsorption capacities of SC.The highest adsorption capacity of 47.65 mg/g for A and 45.41mg/g for B are obtained by TSC in an isotherm experiment at 2.0 g/L dosage and 25°C temperature.TSC adsorption for the two kinds of cationic dyes can be well fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetics model and Langmuir isotherm model.

Adsorption Characteristics of Remazol Black B on Anoxic Sludge

The adsorption characteristics of Remazol Black B on anoxic sludge were investigated.The parameters,such as initial pH,sulphate concentration,and temperature,affecting the dye adsorption were studied.The adsorption data were analyzed with three adsorption isotherm models,namely Langmuir,Freudlich,and linear partition.The results showed that adsorption of Remazol Black B on the sterilized sludge reached equilibrium in 4 h.It also indicated that pH had significant effect on anoxic sludge adsorption behavior.The adsorption capacity of anoxic sludge decreased with the increase of pH value and the maximum adsorption capacity of dyes occurred at pH=3.The adsorptive capacities increased with the decrease of temperature and increase of sulphate concentration.Results also indicated that the adsorption equilibrium of Remazol Black B on anoxic sludge could be well fitted by Freundlich model.

Application of organic polymeric flocculants in centrifugal dewa-tering of oil refinery sludge

In order to evaluate the applicability of the organic polymeric flocculants(OPF) in the treatment of oil refinery sludge, experiments were conducted to show that OPF have better performance of flocculation than inorganic flocculants. Both the anionic and cationic OPF have satisfactory flocculation efficiency in oil sludge treatment, but the latter are more cost efficient. Among the over 20 types of flocculants tested, 2 OPF(CPAM 2 and HPAM 2) were selected as the treatment agents, based on their good treatment performances, oil resistance and economic feasibility. It was demonstrated in the industrial scale centrifugal dewatering experiments that the application of either CPAM 2 or HPAM 2 could achieve high treatment efficiency of the oil sludge dewatering and reduce the COD of centrifugal liquid to less than 1000 mg/L.

Adsorptive Removal of Fluoride from Water by Heat-Treatment Waterworks Alum Sludge

Alum sludge( AS) is a world-wide by-product generated in the drinking water treatment process when aluminum salts are used as coagulant. Its high Al content makes it a potential adsorbent for flouride removal from water. A high performance adsorbent was fabricated via heat treatment of AS and batch adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate its flouride adosroption performance. The results indicated that AS treated at 300℃( AS300) for 1 h had the highest adsorption capacity for fluoride( 52. 9% fluoride removal). The adsorption of fluoride by AS300fitted better the Langmuir isotherm model than the Freundlich model. The maximum fluoride adsorption capacity of AS300increased from 4. 0 to 9. 3 mg /g sludge when reaction temperature increased from 15 to 35 ℃. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of fluoride by AS was spontaneous and endothermic.Hence higher temperature was favorable for fluoride adsorption.The adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order equation.In addition,the fluoride adsorption on AS300 decreased from 4. 3 to2. 5 mg /g sludge when the solution initial pH increased from 4. 0 to9. 0,which meant that adsorption capacity was greatly dependent upon the initial pH of the solution. The results provide new insight into the resource utilization of AS for fluoride removal.

Application of Chitosan Flocculant to Conditioning Sludge

The dewaterability of activated sludge conditioned by chitosan fiocculant was studied. The effects of chitasan characteristics such as molecular weight,degree of deacetylation, and dose on the dewaterability were investigated. The sludge dewaterability is evaluated in terms of specific resistance to filtration, residual turbidity of supernatant, moisture content of cake, and settling rate. Sludge dehydrating behaviors conditioned with CTS, PAM and PAC fiocculants were compared. The conditioning was also carried out with dual flocculants in two stages. It is found that the sludge conditioned with CTS has better dewaterability than that with PAC. The optimum conditions with chitosan are: dose 0.8～1.2 g per 100 g dry cake, molecular weight 300,000, and degree of deacetylation 70%. The conditioning in two stages with dual flocculants is found to be more effective than that with single flocculant.

Biosorption of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions from aqueous solutions onto dried activated sludge

The removal of heavy-metal ions from aqueous solutions by using dried activated sludge has been investigated in batch systems. Effect of solution pH, initial metal ion concentration, and temperature were determined. The results of the kinetic studies showed that the uptake processes of the two metal ions（Cd（Ⅱ） and Pb（Ⅱ）） followed the pseudo-second-order rate expression. The equilibrium data fitted very well to both the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. The FT-IR analysis showed that the main mechanism of Cd（Ⅱ） and Pb（Ⅱ） biosorption onto dried activated sludge was their binding with amide I group.

Removal of phenol by activated carbons prepared from palm oil mill effluent sludge

The study was attempted to produce activated carbons from palm oil mill effluent （POME） sludge. The adsorption capacity of the activated carbons produced was evaluated in aqueous solution of phenol. Two types of activation were followed, namely, thermal activation at 300, 500 and 800%, and physical activation at 150% （boiling treatment）. A control （raw POME sludge） was used to compare the adsorption capacity of the activated carbons produced. The results indicated that the activation temperature of 800℃ showed maximum absorption capacity by the activated carbon （POME 800） in aqueous solution of phenol. Batch adsorption studies showed an equilibrium time of 6 h for the activated carbon of POME 800. It was observed that the adsorption capacity was higher at lower values ofpH （2--3） and higher value of initial concentration of phenol （200--300 mg/L）, The equilibrium data were fitted by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The adsorption of phenol onto the activated carbon POME 800 was studied in terms of pseudo-first and second order kinetics to predict the rate constant and equilibrium capacity with the effect of initial phenol concentrations. The rate of adsorption was found to be better correlation for the pseudo-second order kinetics compared to the first order kinetics.

Evaluation of copper removal efficiency using water treatment sludge

Large quantities of sludge are produced during water treatment processes. Recently, sludge has been treated as waste and disposed of in landfills, which increases the environmental burdens and the operational cost. Therefore, sludge reuse has become a significant environmental issue. In this study, adsorption of copper ions (Cu^2+) onto calcined sludge was investigated under various operational conditions (with varying temperature, Cu^2+ initial concentration, pH, and sludge dosage). The prepared sludge material was characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area. The sorption capacity of sludge was directly proportional to the initial Cu^2+ concentration and inversely proportional to the sludge dosage. The optimum operational pH and solution temperature were 6.6 and 80℃, respectively. The experimental results followed a Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-first-order adsorption kinetics. Thermodynamic parameters such as activation energy, change in free energy, enthalpy, and entropy were calculated. Thermodynamic analyses indicated that the sorption of copper ions onto the calcined sludge was driven by a physical adsorption process. The prepared sludge was proven to be an excellent adsorbent material for the removal of Cu^2+ from an aqueous solution under optimum conditions.

Paper sludge as a feasible soil amendment for the immobilization of Pb^(2+)

The possibility of amending Pb 2＋ contaminated soil （S） with paper sludge （P） was investigated through adsorption and desorption experiments. The adsorption process of Pb 2＋ in soil containing paper sludge （SP） could be well described by pseudo second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model. After P addition, the equilibrium time decreased greatly （from 28 to 8 hr） and the Pb 2＋ maximum adsorbed amount （Q max ） increased by a factor of more than three to 102.04 mg/g. Q max reached its maximum as S：P was 9：1 （m/m） after 10 days contact between S and P. Moreover, Pb 2＋ adsorbed amount increased with the rise of pH during the adsorption process. Desorption experiments indicated that Pb 2＋ adsorption in SP was irreversible. The metal ion fraction was analyzed with Energy Dispersive Spectrometer and Environmental Scan Electron Microscope. As a result, the addition of P to soil was found to induce a decrease in the mobile forms. The Pb 2＋ complexes formation in the presence of carbonates was the main adsorption mechanism. Overall, the paper sludge could be one of the promising soil amendments for the remediation of soil with Pb 2＋ contamination.

Phosphorus removal by adsorbent based on poly-aluminum chloride sludge

Phosphorus adsorption tests were carried out using poly-aluminum chloride sludge(PACS),which was collected from a water treatment plant in Nanjing.The amount of phosphorus adsorbed by PACS increased quickly within the first hour and reached equilibrium after about 48 h.The adsorption behavior of PACS for phosphorus is consistent with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm equation(R2>0.99)and parallel first-order kinetic equation(R2>0.98).With the increase of the PACS concentration,the adsorption capacity of PACS for phosphorus decreased,and the removal rate increased.The results of batch tests showed that the adsorption capacities of PACS for phosphorus ranged from 1.64 to 1.13 mg/g when the pH value varied from 4 to 10.However,the adsorption capacity of PACS was not evidently influenced by temperature.In comparison with the ion exchange resin,the adsorption capacity of PACS was barely inhibited by competitive ions,such as SO2
4,NO
3,and Cl
.The PACS surface after adsorption became smooth,and the vibration peaks of AleO and AleOH shifted.Both HCl and NaOH have a strong desorption effect on PACS after adsorption saturation,and with higher concentrations of HCl and NaOH,the desorption effect was stronger.Results of column adsorption experiments showed that with lower phosphorus and hydraulic loads,the adsorption column took longer to reach saturation.This indicated that PACS could be used as an efficient material for removal of phosphorus from water.This study provides a new treatment method with PACS.

Solid- liquid phase separation and resource recycling study for waste rolling oily sludge

On the basis of the characteristics of a highly emulsified solid-liquid phase （fine particles, sticky consistency,black color, and low reuse ratio）, waste rolling oily sludge has been a focal problem in the steel industry. In this article, a solid-liquid phase separation and resource recycling process was described, with pilot test results showing that flocculation-sedimentation is an effective pretreatment, and that the filtration-coagulationvacuum distillation process is simple and feasible with a 53.5% recovery rate for regenerated oil that is qualified for return to the roiling production line. Then,solid phase oil-sludge was extracted by solvents with a 77% metal resource recovery rate and a wide utilization range. Finally, according to the experimental results, a set of feasibility plans for a 50 t/a waste rolling oily sludge solid-liquid separation and resource recycle project was designed, with the expectation of 50% regenerated oil yield, 70% solid metal resource recovery, and a 2. 5-year investment payback period.

Influence of Na^+,K^+,Mg^(2+),Ca^(2+),and Fe^(3+) on filterability and settleability of drilling sludge

Solid–liquid separation is a vital step in drilling sludge disposal, and the filterability and settleability of drilling sludge are the main evaluating indicators for the separation process. The influence of Na^+,K^+,Mg^(2+),Ca^(2+),and Fe^(3+) on drilling sludge filterability and settleability was investigated in our research. The water content,filtration rate, supernatant volume and supernatant turbidity were measured to evaluate the filterability and settleability of drilling sludge. Meanwhile, the zeta potential, specific surface area of sludge flocs, particle size distribution and Fourier-transformed infrared spectra were employed to clarify the influencing mechanism.The experimental results showed that the filterability and settleability of drilling sludge were related to concentration and types of cations. Mg^(2+),Ca^(2+),and Fe^(3+) performed better than Na^+, K^+, and the cations with smaller hydrated radius got superior solid–liquid separation behavior at same valence. Finally, the spectra indicated that no chemical adsorption occurred between inorganic cations and drilling sludge flocs. The variation of surface charge and flocs growth after adding different inorganic cations were the reasons for the changes of the filterability and settleability.