Harnessing water fleas for water reclamation: A nature-based tertiary wastewater treatment technology.

Urbanisation, population growth, and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on water resources, leading to a global water crisis and the need for water reuse. However, water reuse is unsafe unless persistent chemical pollutants are removed from reclaimed water. State-of-the-art technologies for the reduction of persistent chemical pollutants in wastewater typically impose high operational and energy costs and potentially generate toxic by-products (e.g., bromate from ozonation). Nature-base solutions are preferred to these technologies for their lower environmental impact. However, so far, bio-based tertiary wastewater treatments have been inefficient for industrial-scale applications. Moreover, they often demand significant financial investment and large infrastructure, undermining sustainability objectives. Here, we present a scalable, low-cost, low-carbon, and retrofittable nature-inspired solution to remove persistent chemical pollutants (pharmaceutical, pesticides and industrial chemicals). We showed Daphnia's removal efficiency of individual chemicals and chemicals from wastewater at laboratory scale ranging between 50 % for PFOS and 90 % for diclofenac. We validated the removal efficiency of diclofenac at prototype scale, showing sustained performance over four weeks in outdoor seminatural conditions. A techno-commercial analysis on the Daphnia-based technology suggested several technical, commercial and sustainability advantages over established and emerging treatments at comparable removal efficiency, benchmarked on available data on individual chemicals. Further testing of the technology is underway in open flow environments holding real wastewater. The technology has the potential to improve the quality of wastewater effluent, meeting requirements to produce water appropriate for reuse in irrigation, industrial application, and household use. By preventing persistent chemicals from entering waterways, this technology has the potential to maximise the shift to clean growth, enabling water reuse, reducing resource depletion and preventing environmental pollution.

Novel catalytically active Pd/Ru bimetallic nanoparticles synthesized by Bacillus benzeovorans.

Bacillus benzeovorans assisted and supported growth of ruthenium (bio-Ru) and palladium/ruthenium (bio-Pd@Ru) core@shell nanoparticles (NPs) as bio-derived catalysts. Characterization of the bio-NPs using various electron microscopy techniques and high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) analysis confirmed two NP populations (1-2 nm and 5-8 nm), with core@shells in the latter. The Pd/Ru NP lattice fringes, 0.231 nm, corresponded to the (110) plane of RuO2. While surface characterization using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed the presence of Pd(0), Pd(II), Ru(III) and Ru(VI), X-ray absorption (XAS) studies of the bulk material confirmed the Pd speciation (Pd(0) and Pd(II)- corresponding to PdO), and identified Ru as Ru(III) and Ru(IV). The absence of Ru-Ru or Ru-Pd peaks indicated Ru only exists in oxide forms (RuO2 and RuOH), which are surface-localized. X ray diffraction (XRD) patterns did not identify Pd-Ru alloying. Preliminary catalytic studies explored the conversion of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) to the fuel precursor 2,5-dimethyl furan (2,5-DMF). Both high-loading (9.7 wt.% Pd, 6 wt.% Ru) and low-loading (2.4 wt.% Pd, 2 wt.% Ru) bio-derived catalysts demonstrated high conversion efficiencies (~95%) and selectivity of ~63% (~20% better than bio-Ru NPs) and 58%, respectively. These materials show promising future scope as efficient low-cost biofuel catalysts.

Supercritical water oxidation for the destruction of hazardous waste: better than incineration.

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is an advanced process mainly employed for the treatment of hazardous stable wastes, otherwise treatable by incineration. It is based on the unique properties of water above its critical point (T(c)=675 K, P(c)=22.2 MPa), making it a superior reaction medium for the destruction of all organics in the presence of oxygen. This work presents preliminary laboratory scale studies on SCWO of nitrogen (N)-containing hazardous hydrocarbons, with a view to enhancing the process performance, using available reagents and non-complex reactor design. This article investigates the destruction of dimethylformamide (DMF), carried out in a continuous (plug flow) reactor system. SCWO of DMF was enhanced by (i) a split-oxidant system, where stoichiometric oxidant was divided between two inlet ports at various ratios and (ii) the addition of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a co-fuel, premixed with the feedstock. Testing a range of temperatures, initial DMF concentrations, oxidant ratios, IPA ratios and oxidant split ratios, selected results were presented in terms of % total organic carbon and % N removal. Reaction kinetics were studied and showed a dramatic decrease in the activation energy upon adding IPA. Split-oxidant-feeding enhancement depended on the split ratio and secondary feed position.

Kinetic modeling of liquid-phase adsorption of reactive dyes on activated carbon.

In this paper, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of three reactive dyes from their single-component aqueous solutions onto activated carbon were studied in a batch reactor. Effects of the initial concentration and adsorbent particle size on adsorption rate were investigated Adsorption equilibrium data were then correlated with several well-known equilibrium isotherm models. The kinetic data were fitted using the pseudo-first-order equation, the pseudo-second-order equation, and the intraparticle diffusion model. The respective characteristic rate constants were presented. A new adsorption rate model based on the pseudo-first-order equation has been proposed to describe the experimental data over the whole adsorption process. The results show that the modified pseudo-first-order kinetic model generates the best agreement with the experimental data for the three single-component adsorption systems.

Efficient batch and continuous flow Suzuki cross-coupling reactions under mild conditions, catalysed by polyurea-encapsulated palladium (II) acetate and tetra-n-butylammonium salts.

Suzuki cross-coupling reactions are effected in both conventional organic solvents, under continuous flow conditions at 70 degree C, and in batch mode in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2), at temperatures as low as 40 degrees C in the presence of palladium(II) acetate microencapsulated in polyurea [PdEnCat] and tetra-n-butylammonium salts.

Nitrile oxide cycloadditions in supercritical carbon dioxide.

The regioselectivity of dipolar cycloadditions of mesitonitrile oxide to various dipolarophiles in supercritical carbon dioxide can be tuned by changes in density, the magnesium bromide-mediated cycloaddition to pent-1-en-3-ol proceeding with higher stereoselectivity than in most conventional solvents.