Copper is a major problem in industrial wastewater streams, seriously affecting the quality of potential drinking water. Several approaches, including continuous membrane processes or batch-wise application of adsorbents, are in use to tackle this problem. Unfortunately, these processes suffer from their particular drawbacks, such as low permeance or disposal of saturated adsorbents. However, a combination of these processes could constitute a step towards a more efficient copper removal solution. Here, we present a nanopaper ion-exchanger prepared from cellulose nanofibrils produced from fibre sludge, a paper industry waste stream, for the efficient, continuous removal of copper from aqueous solutions. This nanopaper ion-exchanger comprises phosphorylated cellulose nanofibrils that were processed into nanopapers by papermaking. The performance of these phosphorylated nanopaper membranes was determined with respect to their rejection of copper and permeance. It was shown that this new type of nanopaper is capable of rejecting copper ions during a filtration process by adsorption. Results suggest that functional groups on the surface of the nanopapers contribute to the adsorption of copper ions to a greater extent than phosphate groups within the bulk of the nanopaper. Moreover, we demonstrated that those nanopaper ion-exchangers could be regenerated and reused and that in the presence of calcium ions, the adsorption capacity for copper was only slightly reduced.
Nitrates seriously affect drinking water quality. We herein present a process for the efficient removal of nitrates from water using a nanopaper ion-exchanger, which can be operated in flow-through conditions. The nanopaper ion-exchanger was produced from nanofibrillated cellulose obtained from fibre sludge, a paper-production wastestream, using a simple paper-making process. The cellulose nanofibrils were modified with quaternary trimethylammonium groups. The performance of these cationic nanopaper ion-exchangers was assessed with respect to their permeance and nitrate adsorption. Nitrates could be successfully captured onto the cationic nanopaper and thus rejected from contaminated water during dynamic filtration experiments. The ion-exchange nanopaper had adsorption capacities in the range of commercial available adsorbers but with the advantage of reduced contact time.
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