UTILIZATION OF WATER HYACINTH FOR DYE EFFLUENT PURIFICATION

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) (WH) is an invasive plant floating freely on the water, which is widely spread in tropical and subtropical regions. The plant is characterized by high porosity and a high number of functional groups, such as hydroxyl (-OH), carboxyl (–COOH), and amino groups (–NH2). Activated carbon, which is widely accepted on an industrial level for the adsorption of dyes from wastewaters, is a highly expensive material. Thus, in this research, a bioadsorbent material was prepared based on WH biomass and investigated as an alternative tool for water quality remediation, in the case of dye pollutants (RR HE3B). The WH plants were collected from the nearby Lake Tana and used as an adsorbent material without chemical treatment. The batch adsorption test was performed by varying the pH of the solution, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentration. The powdered WH and RR HE3B dye loaded WH were characterized using FTIR, revealing the emergence of new stretching vibration peaks in the range from 2800 to 3000 cm-1 on the spectrum of Reactive Red HE3B (RR HE3B) dye loaded WH, confirming that -CH and -CH2 were responsible for the adsorption. The analysis of the adsorption isotherm and of the suitability of different models for describing it has led to the following order: Freundlich > Langmuir > Temkin > Dubinin-Radushkevich, based on their correlation coefficient value. This implies that the WH adsorbent surface is heterogeneous and the adsorption of the dye onto it depends not only on the specific reaction sites, as the n-value of the Freundlich constant confirms that the physical adsorption process might be favored. Therefore, WH could be a potential alternative adsorbent to remove the RR HE3B dye from dye polluted wastewaters.

Intensified Photocatalytic Degradation of Solophenyl Scarlet BNLE in Simulated Textile Effluents Using TiO2 Supported on Cellulosic Tissue

The Heterogeneous photocatalysis, increasingly used in effluent purification, is attracting more and more attention by the development of new photocatalytic materials based on semiconductors deposited on various supports. In this work, TiO2 supported on cellulosic fiber was prepared and characterized by different analytical techniques such as X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area. Its photocatalytic activity was investigated for the degradation of Solophenyl Scarlet BNLE (SS), an organic pollutant present in textile effluents. Several conditions were investigated such as adsorption under UV and visible irradiation, catalyst recyclability, the simulated effluent pH and the presence of H2O2 as an oxidant agent. Results showed that under UV light, the removal of SS decreased significantly with increasing initial dye concentration. For an initial concentration of 5 mg/L, SS degradation was reached more than 95 % after 2 hours of treatment (neutral pH, T = 20 °C). The supported TiO2 on cellulose remains effective over four cycles of dye treatment. In the presence of H2O2, the degradation process was inhibited with increasing the molar ratio [H2O2]/[SS]0 from 5 to 30. The kinetic modeling showed that the removal of this pollutant followed a pseudo-first-order model (Langmuir-Hinshelwood) with a regression coefficient (R2) value of 0.984.

Adapting to socioeconomic, operational and environmental challenges of dairy farm effluent purification in Uruguay through the use of surface flow constructed wetlands

The 3600 dairy farms in south-western Uruguay, with about 750,000 cows in 2008, play an important economic role. Only about 200 of the farms have a sewage treatment system, since no legal regulations for the disposal of effluents exist, the cost of construction is high and neither direct benefits nor incentives are given. The current systems are mainly lagoons that often lack maintenance, resulting in the eutrophication of rivers. One of our goals was to implement a low cost, robust surface flow constructed wetland using native plants, in order to test the acceptance and willingness to pay of the farmers and to see if the effluent water quality met the national standards even if operating under the lack of maintenance. Within a small catchment, 6 farmers attended a seminar series on water(shed) quality, importance of wetlands and sewage treatment options, explaining the functioning of constructed wetlands and the costs of construction. One of the farmers decided to construct a double lagoon system followed by a surface flow CW using Scirpus americanus. However, construction of the ponds occurred by the farmer himself resulting in inadequate dimensioning. The exceptionally dry summer 2008/2009 also delayed planting but by now plants have established themselves and other emergent macrophytes have followed. So far visual water quality as well as biodiversity has improved. Furthermore, farmers and technicians have become interested in the use of CW and other implementations are envisioned. Also, the legislation on dairy farm effluent is about to change which will boost the necessity for all kinds of sewage systems.