Micromixing Efficiency of Particles in Heavy Metal Removal Processes under Various Inlet Conditions

Abstract

Water quality problems are a persistent global issue since population growth has continually stressed hydrological resources. Heavy metals released into the environment from plating plants, mining, and alloy manufacturing pose a significant threat to the public health. A possible solution for water purification from heavy metals is to capture them by using nanoparticles in micromixers. In this method, conventionally heavy metal capture is achieved by effectively mixing two streams, a particle solution and the contaminated water, under the action of external magnetic fields. In the present study, we investigated the effective mixing of iron oxide nanoparticles and water without the use of external magnetic fields. For this reason, the mixing of particles and the contaminated water was studied for various inlet velocity ratios and inflow angles of the two streams using computational fluid dynamics techniques. The Navier-Stokes equations were solved for the water flow, the discrete motion of particles was evaluated by a Lagrangian method, while the flow of substances of the contaminated water was studied by a scalar transport equation. Results showed that as the velocity ratio between the inlet streams increased, the mixing of particles with the contaminated water was increased. Therefore, nanoparticles were more uniformly distributed in the duct and efficiently absorbed the substances of the contaminated water. On the other hand, the angle between two streams was found to play an insignificant role in the mixing process. Consequently, the results from this study could be used in the design of more compact and cost efficient micromixer devices.

Radiative MHD Nanofluid Flow over a Moving Thin Needle with Entropy Generation in a Porous Medium with Dust Particles and Hall Current

“…Abundant applications focusing on Cattaneo-Christov heat flux amalgamated with thermal radiation may be found in missiles, air crafts, nuclear power plants, space vehicles’ propulsion gadgets, etc. Keeping in view these interesting applications, scientists and researchers [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ] are motivated to look for fluid behavior in attendance of thermal radiation and Cattaneo-Christov heat flux.…”

Use of Heavy Metal Content and Modified Water Quality Index to Assess Groundwater Quality in a Semiarid Area

“…There are various methods for dealing with heavy metal pollution in groundwater resources. These could be pumped and treated [6], be absorbed [7] by various kinds of absorbents [8], captured by nanoparticles [9] in micromixers [10,11], and removed by more natural solutions like wetlands [12]. However, implementing any remedy measure needs sufficient understanding of the situation and reliable inclusive assessment of the potential risk.…”

Adsorption of Lead and Nickel on to Expanded Graphite Decorated with Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles

“…where R is the universal gas constant (8.314 J/mol/K); and T (K) is the absolute solution temperature. The Gibbs free energy change is a function of the change in enthalpy and entropy, which is expressed by Equation (12).…”

“…Nano-sized metal oxide particles have fascinated many researchers due to their high adsorption capacities as well as their extremely fast adsorption of and high affinity for heavy metals [11,12]. Among them, manganese oxide nanoparticles (MONPs), with notably high surface area and uniform size, are of great importance due to their novel applications in heavy metal removal [13,14].…”