The chemical coagulation-flocculation technology is touted as one of the valuable techniques and widely used for wastewater treatment because of its simplicity and effectiveness. So far, a number of flocculants have been fabricated to ameliorate the flocculation process in water treatment such as alum, polyaluminium chloride. Despite its broad application in water treatment, accumulation of alum in sludge has been reported as the main source of a disposal problem. Furthermore, recent studies suggested that the presence of alum in sludge may lead to human health problems. Here in, we have used alkalization method to recover alum present in sludge collected from Kimisagara water treatment plant located in Kigali capital city of Rwanda. The recovered alum was used more than one time and showed excellent flocculation efficiency. Some physical parameters such as pH, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Conductivity and Turbidity were systematically tested and compared with those of World Health Organization (WHO) and Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) standards for drinking water. The results showed that alum present in sludge can be recovered and reused for multiple times.
Developing a simple and efficient method for removing organic micropollutants from aqueous systems is crucial. The present study describes the preparation and application, for the first time, of novel MXene-decorated bismuth ferrite nanocomposites (BiFeO3/MXene) for the removal of six sulfonamides including sulfadiazine (SDZ), sulfathiazole (STZ), sulfamerazine (SMZ), sulfamethazine (SMTZ), sulfamethoxazole (SMXZ) and sulfisoxazole (SXZ). The properties of BiFeO3/MXene are enhanced by the presence of BiFeO3 nanoparticles, which provide a large surface area to facilitate the removal of sulfonamides. More importantly, BiFeO3/MXene composites demonstrated remarkable sulfonamide adsorption capabilities compared to pristine MXene, which is due to the synergistic effect between BiFeO3 and MXene. The kinetics and isotherm models of sulfonamide adsorption on BiFeO3/MXene are consistent with a pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir model. BiFeO3/MXene had appreciable reusability after five adsorption–desorption cycles. Furthermore, BiFeO3/MXene is stable and retains its original properties upon desorption. The present work provides an effective method for eliminating sulfonamides from water by exploiting the excellent texture properties of BiFeO3/MXene.
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