In this study, a packed bed was used to remove pathogenic bacteria from synthetic contaminated water. Two types of packing material substrates, sand and zeolite, were used. These substrates were coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were prepared by decomposition of Ag ions from AgNO3 solution. The prepared coated packings were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The packed column consisted of a PVC cylinder of 2 cm diameter and 20 cm in length. The column was packed with silver nanoparticlecoated substrates (sand or zeolite) at a depth of 10 cm. Four types of bacteria were studied: Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Vibrio cholera. The parameters studied were feed inlet flow rate (1.5, 2, 3 and 4 L/h) and AgNO3 concentration (0.02, 0.04, 0.07 and 0.1 mM), which were used to coat the packing substrates. The best results for removal efficiency of bacteria were obtained at the feed flow rate of 1.5 L/h with AgNO3 concentration 0.1 mM. Likewise, the percent of bacterial removal from contaminated water was found to be 99% for V. cholera, 93.7% for E. coli, 85% for S. dysenteriae and 77.5% for P. aeruginosa
A phytoremediation experiment was carried out with kerosene as a model for total petroleum hydrocarbons. A constructed wetland of barley was exposed to kerosene pollutants at varying concentrations (1, 2, and 3% v/v) in a subsurface flow (SSF) system. After a period of 42 days of exposure, it was found that the average ability to eliminate kerosene ranged from 56.5% to 61.2%, with the highest removal obtained at a kerosene concentration of 1% v/v. The analysis of kerosene at varying initial concentrations allowed the kinetics of kerosene to be fitted with the Grau model, which was closer than that with the zero order, first order, or second order kinetic models. The experimental study showed that the barley plant designed in a subsu
... Show MoreAs a result of the exacerbation of the problem of water pollution, research was directed towards studying the treatment using ceramic membranes, which proved to be highly effective in treating all water sources. The research aims to study the possibility of preparing a new type of ceramic membranes from Syrian zeolite that was not previously used in this field. In this research, ceramic membranes were prepared from Syrian raw zeolite in several stages. Zeolite sample was characterized, grinded, mixed with boric acid, pressed to form desks, treated thermally according to experiment program, finally coated with silver nanoparticles. Specifications of prepared membranes were determined according to reference methods, effectiveness of prepar
... Show MoreIn this research, the removal of cadmium (Cd) from simulated wastewater was investigated by using a fixed bed bio-electrochemical reactor. The effects of the main controlling factors on the performance of the removal process such as applied cell voltage, initial Cd concentration, pH of the catholyte, and the mesh number of the cathode were investigated. The results showed that the applied cell voltage had the main impact on the removal efficiency of cadmium where increasing the applied voltage led to higher removal efficiency. Meanwhile increasing the applied voltage was found to be given lower current efficiency and higher energy consumption. No significant effect of initial Cd concentration on the removal efficie
... Show MoreThe fabrication of Solid and Hollow silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) has been achieved and their characterization was performed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), zeta potential, UV–VIS spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A TEM image revealed a quasispherical form for both Solid and Hollow Ag NPs. The measurement of surface charge revealed that although Hollow Ag NPs have a zeta potential of -43 mV, Solid Ag NPs have a zeta potential of -33 mV. According to UV-VIS spectroscopy measurement Solid and Hollow Ag NPs both showed absorption peaks at wavelengths of 436 nm and 412 nm, respectively. XRD pattern demonstrates that the samples' crystal structure is cubic, similar to that of the bulk materials, with
... Show MoreAdsorption is one of the most important technologies for the treatment of polluted water from dyes. Theaim of this study is to use a low-cost adsorbent for this purpose. A novel and economical adsorbent was used to remove methyl violet dye (MV) from aqueous solutions. This adsorbent was prepared from bean peel, which is an agricultural waste. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study the ability of the bean peel adsorbent (BPA) to remove the methyl violet (MV) dye. The effects of different variables, such as weight of the adsorbent, pH of the MV solution, initial concentration of MV, contact time and temperature, on the adsorption behaviour were studied. It was found experimentally that the time required to achieve equilibrium
... Show MoreSoil bacteria play an interesting role in the reduction of Ag+ ions and the formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which may be a good source for nanoparticles and play a major role in nanotechnology applications. The concept of this project was to study the effects of these environmentally produced nanoparticles on the growth of some pathogenic bacteria. The environmental bacteria were isolated from soil, purified on broth cultures, and centrifuged, while the supernatant was extracted to detect its ability to convert silver nitrate to nanoparticles. The AgNPs was detected by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), while Granularity Cumulating Distribution (GCD) was employed to estimate the AgNPs sizes. The results showed the
... Show MoreCoated sand (CS) filter media was investigated to remove phenol and 4-nitrophenol from aqueous solutions in batch experiments. Local sand was subjected to surface modification as impregnated with iron. The influence of process variables represented by solution pH value, contact time, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage on removal efficiency of phenol and 4-nitrophenol onto CS was studied. Batch studies were performed to evaluate the adsorption process, and it was found that the Langmuir isotherm effectively fits the experimental data for the adsorbates better than the Freundlich model with the CS highest adsorption capacity of 0.45 mg/g for 4-nitrophenol and 0.25 mg/g for phenol. The CS was found to adsorb 85% of 4-nitrophenol and
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