Two common iron oxide-bearing wastes—a drinking water treatment residual and a passive mine water treatment sludge (MWTS)—were utilised with and without modification as media in microcosm experiments to treat artificial benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX)-contaminated wastewater. In all cases, the removal of BTEX was observed over the 160-day experiments, with benzene being the most recalcitrant. The solubilisation of iron was observed, which, alongside the syntropic relationship between the methanogens and firmicutes, allowed several anaerobic processes to occur, including iron reduction in concert with the biodegradation of BTEX. Nitrogen sparging prior to microcosm establishment, compared to aeration, was seen to lead to the greater subsequent removal of BTEX, indicating that anaerobic conditions favoured removal. The rates of BTEX removal indicated that these iron oxide-bearing wastes, an abundant waste stream, may be an interesting candidate for cost-effective media for BTEX remediation in applications such as permeable reactive barriers.
The escalating generation of industrial waste alongside the growing demand for high-performance, environmentally sustainable drilling fluids presents critical challenges to the oil and gas sector. Conventional drilling fluid additives are predominantly synthesized from virgin materials, contributing to resource depletion and environmental burden. Objectives: This study pioneers a circular economy approach by synthesizing silica nanoparticles (SiO2NPS) and alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3NPs) entirely from locally sourced industrial waste — bentonite clay and aluminum scrap, respectively — and evaluating their performance as functional additives in water-based drilling fluids (WBDFs). Novelty: To the best of our knowledge, this represents th
... Show MoreA field-pilot scale slow sand filter (SSF) was constructed at Al-Rustamiya Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Baghdad city to investigate the removal efficiency in terms of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical oxygen demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Chloride concentrations for achieving better secondary effluent quality from this treatment plant. The SSF was designed at a 0.2 m/h filtration rate with filter area 1 m2 and total filter depth of 2.3 m. A filter sand media 0.35 mm in size and 1 m depth was supported by 0.2 m layer of gravel of size 5 mm. The secondary effluent from Al-Rustamiya STP was used as the influent to the slow sand filter. The results showed that the removal of BOD5, COD, TSS, and Chloride were
... Show MoreA recently reported Nile red (NR) dye conjugated with benzothiadiazole species paves the way for the development of novel organic-based sensitizers used in solar cells whose structures are susceptible to modifications. Thus, six novel NR structures were derived from two previously developed structures in laboratories. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) calculations and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) were used to determine the optoelectronic properties of the NR-derived moieties such as absorption spectra. Various linkers were investigated in an attempt to understand the impact of π-linkers on the optoelectronic properties. According to the findings, the presence of furan species led to the planarity of the molecule and a reduction
... Show MoreHard-grade asphalt binders like AC20-30 typically exhibit excessive stiffness, reduced penetration, and compromised workability, necessitating modification before use in paving applications. This study evaluates the efficacy of regular polyalphaolefin (PAO), a synthetic olefin-based lubricant, as a performance-enhancing modifying agent for such binders. AC20-30 was blended with PAO at dosages ranging from 2 wt.% to 10 wt.%, and the modified binders were characterized via penetration, ductility, softening point, and rotational viscosity measurements, alongside advanced rheological and chemical-morphological analyses. Incorporating PAO in AC20-30 asphalt progressively reduced the binder stiffness and enhanced its flexibility, with all modifie
... Show MoreThe removal of commercial orange G dye from its aqueous solution by adsorption on tobacco leaves (TL) was studied in respect to different factor that affected the adsorption process. These factors including the tobacco leaves does, period of orange G adsorption, pH, and initial orange G dye concentration .Different types of isotherm models were used to describe the orange G dye adsorption onto the tobacco leaves. The experimental results were compared using Langmuir, and frundlich adsorption isotherm, the constants for these two isotherm models was determined. The results fitted frundlich model with value of correlation coefficient equal to (0.981). The capacity of adsorption for the orange G dye was carried out using various kinetic models
... Show MoreIn this work, metal oxides nanostructures, mainly, copper oxide (CuO), nickel oxide (NiO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and multilayer structure were synthesized by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The structural purity and nanoparticle size of the prepared nanostructures were determined. The individual metal oxide samples (CuO, NiO and TiO2) showed high structural purity and minimum particle sizes of 34, 44, 61 nm, respectively. As well, the multilayer structure showed high structural purity as no elements or compounds other than the three oxides were founds in the final sample while the minimum particle size was 18 nm. This reduction in nanoparticle size can be considered as an advantage for the dc reactive magnetron sputtering tec
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