Titanium Coagulation Simplified Removal Procedure and Alleviated Membrane Fouling in Treatment of Antimony-Containing Wastewater

Abstract

The removal of antimony (Sb) from textile and dyeing wastewater is a challenging task. To meet the discharge limit and the demand for water reuse, the currently available treatment process was complicated: first, coagulation with polyaluminum chloride (PAC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) prior to membrane filtration to remove turbidity and then coagulation with polyferric sulfate (PFS) after membrane filtration to remove Sb from the concentrate. Such a process is troublesome in operation and generates a large amount of hazardous sludge. Here, we report that using a titanium xerogel coagulant (TXC) prior to membrane filtration could simultaneously remove the turbidity and the residual Sb in one-step. With TXC as the coagulants, no after-membrane coagulation was needed. Moreover, the TXC coagulation significantly alleviated the membrane fouling. A 24-day running of a pilot-scale test demonstrates that addition of 60 mg/L of TXC reduced the residual Sb concentration in the effluent from 226–894 μg/L to below the discharge limit (<50 μg/L). Meanwhile, the operating time of the ultrafiltration (UF)–reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system was prolonged, because of alleviated membrane fouling. This work indicates that TXC coagulation is a promising strategy for the treatment of Sb-containing wastewater. The simplified treatment procedure and the alleviated membrane fouling are helpful in reducing the processing costs for water reuse.

Insighting the interaction mechanism of zirconium xerogel coagulants with humic acid: the protective effect of acetylacetone

“…The preparation of ZXC was carried out according to the method reported in previous studies. 17,18 Specifically, 2.33 g of ZrCl 4 was added to 20 mL of ethanol and AcAc (the molar ratio of Zr/AcAc ranged from 1 : 1 to 1 : 1/9). Thereafter, 10 mL of ethanol and a certain volume of ultrapure water (the molar ratio of Zr/H 2 O varied from 1 : 10 to 1 : 30) were added dropwise to the sol.…”

Efficient Removal of Antimony(V) from Antimony Mine Wastewater by Micrometer Zero-Valent Iron

“…Currently, various technologies have been proposed and used to remove antimony from aqueous media, including coagulation/flocculation, − membrane separation, − electrochemistry, , bioremediation, and adsorption. − Compared to the other water pollution purification technologies, adsorption has advantages in terms of operation difficulty, cost-effectiveness, and regeneration ability, , making it a good choice for treating antimony pollution in water. Commonly used adsorbents for removing antimony in water include metal oxides/hydroxides, ,, adsorbents based on residues and wastes, , biological adsorbents, , and so on.…”

Surface Chemical Groups of Flocs Are Key Factors for the Growth of Flocs in Sweep Coagulation: A Case Study of Surface Occupation by Humic Acid

“…Coagulation, with the benefits of low cost and broad application, is one of the most common processes in water treatment. − Among various coagulant products, − hydrolyzing metal salts such as alum and ferric salts are most widely used. It has long been recognized that charge neutralization and sweep flocculation are two important mechanisms for coagulation. , However, the in-depth understanding of the floc growth process was still unclear.…”