Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of the project include the following: chemical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, and other industrial manufacturers that generate organic and inorganic pollutants in their waste stream, agricultural industry that generates biomass and wastes from its processing, and other industrial or domestic users that require high performance adsorbents to remove hazardous materials or purify their products. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Key results including composite adsorbent material properties and adsorption performance results have been selectively shared and discussed with partners and potential customers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A fundamental requirement for safe human life is the availability of clean and uncontaminated water. Global industrialization has led to increasing environmental pollution due to significant pollutant discharges from many industries. There are increasing concerns about these pollutants due to their potential toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. Innovative composite adsorbents using biomass materials have been successfully developed and are being scaled up to large scale production in Phase II. United States produces hundreds of millions of dry tons of biomass materials each year from forest and agricultural residues. The success of the Phase II project will contribute to increased utilization of forest materials, promote wood waste recycling, and improve water quality and conservation through effective wastewater treatment and reuse. The overall goal of the Phase II project is to scale up and optimize the composite adsorbent material formulation and fabrication process using biomass materials for wastewater treatment applications. The first objective of Phase II is to scale up composite adsorbent fabrication process from the lab process to pilot production. Raw materials including sustainable biomass materials have been evaluated and successfully identified from low cost sources in the United States. Raw materials specifications have been defined based on Phase II development results. Effective composite adsorbent fabrication processes have been developed to achieve pilot scale production. Processing equipment and supplies with large processing volumes required for the pilot production have been evaluated and established. High performance composite adsorbents have been successfully produced in a pilot scale with desired material properties and adsorption performance. The second objective of Phase II is to optimize material formulation and production process to improve composite adsorbent performance. To address raw material variability issues, in addition to improvements made to raw material processing, composite material formulation has been further improved to accommodate raw material batch variations, maintain high material processability, and achieve high adsorbent performance. Optimal composite material formulation has been established for pilot scale production. Mixing and granulation processes have been further improved to achieve over 90% yield in the desired granule size range with a shortened production cycle. Post-granulation composite adsorbent fabrication processes including material strength development, biomass material activation, and composite phase formation, have also been further optimized to improve adsorption performance, increase production volume, and reduce cycle time. With the improved material formulation and fabrication processes, the composite adsorbent pilot scale production goals have been successfully accomplished. More work is still underway to further improve composite adsorbent performance and reduce production cost. The third objective of Phase II is to validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale operations and establish effective operating conditions for wastewater treatment. Composite adsorbent performance and quality control methods have been further developed and improved to allow quick screening of composite adsorbents and monitor the production process to ensure quality and yield. Composite adsorbent property and performance evaluation studies have demonstrated excellent adsorption performance for both inorganic and organic contaminants, providing a superior alternative to commercial adsorbents. Additionally, development work has been done in Phase II to develop pilot scale wastewater treatment systems. Two wastewater treatment systems with different treatment capacities have been developed and used to evaluate composite adsorbent performance and develop operating conditions. Pilot scale wastewater treatment study results have indicated that composite adsorbents can effectively treat complex wastewater at pilot scale flow rates and remove various types of contaminants with well-balanced performance.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of the project include the following: chemical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, and other industrial manufacturers that generate organic and inorganic pollutants in their waste stream, agricultural industry that generates biomass and wastes from its processing, and other industrial or domestic users that require high performance adsorbents to remove hazardous materials or purify their products. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Key results including composite adsorbent material properties and adsorption performance results have been selectively shared and discussed with partners and potential customers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A fundamental requirement for safe human life is the availability of clean and uncontaminated water. Global industrialization has led to increasing environmental pollution due to significant pollutant discharges from many industries. There are increasing concerns about these pollutants due to their potential toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. Innovative composite adsorbents using biomass materials have been successfully developed and are being scaled up to large scale production in Phase II. United States produces hundreds of millions of dry tons of biomass materials each year from forest and agricultural residues. The success of the Phase II project will contribute to increased utilization of forest materials, promote wood waste recycling, and improve water quality and conservation through effective wastewater treatment and reuse. The overall goal of the Phase II project is to scale up and optimize the composite adsorbent material formulation and fabrication process using biomass materials for wastewater treatment applications. The first objective of Phase II is to scale up composite adsorbent fabrication process from the lab process to pilot production. The second objective of Phase II is to optimize material formulation and production process to improve composite adsorbent performance. Both of these two goals have been accomplished in the previous efforts in Phase II. The third objective of Phase II is to validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale operations and establish effective operating conditions for wastewater treatment. Composite adsorbent performance and quality control methods have been further developed and improved to allow quick screening of composite adsorbents and monitor the production process to ensure quality and yield. Composite adsorbent property and performance evaluation studies have demonstrated excellent adsorption performance for both inorganic and organic contaminants, providing a superior alternative to commercial adsorbents. Additionally, development work has been done in Phase II to develop pilot scale wastewater treatment systems. Two wastewater treatment systems with different treatment capacities have been developed and used to evaluate composite adsorbent performance and develop operating conditions. Pilot scale wastewater treatment study results have indicated that composite adsorbents can effectively treat complex wastewater at pilot scale flow rates and remove various types of contaminants with well-balanced performance.

Publications

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of the project include the following: chemical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, and other industrial manufacturers that generate organic and inorganic pollutants in their waste stream, agricultural industry that generates biomass and wastes from its processing, and other industrial or domestic users that require high performance adsorbents to remove hazardous materials or purify their products. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Key results including composite adsorbent material properties and adsorption performance results have been selectively shared and discussed with partners and potential customers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A fundamental requirement for safe human life is the availability of clean and uncontaminated water. Global industrialization has led to increasing environmental pollution due to significant pollutant discharges from many industries. There are increasing concerns about these pollutants due to their potential toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. Innovative composite adsorbents using biomass materials have been successfully developed and are being scaled up to large scale production in Phase II. United States produces hundreds of millions of dry tons of biomass materials each year from forest and agricultural residues. The success of the Phase II project will contribute to increased utilization of forest materials, promote wood waste recycling, and improve water quality and conservation through effective wastewater treatment and reuse. The overall goal of the Phase II project is to scale up and optimize the composite adsorbent material formulation and fabrication process using biomass materials for wastewater treatment applications. The first objective of Phase II is to scale up composite adsorbent fabrication process from the lab process to pilot production. Raw materials including sustainable biomass materials have been evaluated and successfully identified from low cost sources in the United States. Raw materials specifications have been defined based on Phase II development results. Effective composite adsorbent fabrication processes have been developed to achieve pilot scale production. Processing equipment and supplies with large processing volumes required for the pilot production have been evaluated and established. High performance composite adsorbents have been successfully produced in a pilot scale with desired material properties and adsorption performance. The second objective of Phase II is to optimize material formulation and production process to improve composite adsorbent performance. To address raw material variability issues, in addition to improvements made to raw material processing, composite material formulation has been further improved to accommodate raw material batch variations, maintain high material processability, and achieve high adsorbent performance. Optimal composite material formulation has been established for pilot scale production. Mixing and granulation processes have been further improved to achieve over 90% yield in the desired granule size range with a shortened production cycle. Post-granulation composite adsorbent fabrication processes including material strength development, biomass material activation, and composite phase formation, have also been further optimized to improve adsorption performance, increase production volume, and reduce cycle time. With the improved material formulation and fabrication processes, the composite adsorbent pilot scale production goals have been successfully accomplished. More work is still underway to further improve composite adsorbent performance and reduce production cost. The third objective of Phase II is to validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale operations and establish effective operating conditions for wastewater treatment. Composite adsorbent performance and quality control methods have been further developed and improved to allow quick screening of composite adsorbents and monitor the production process to ensure quality and yield. Initial composite adsorbent property and performance evaluation studies have demonstrated excellent adsorption performance for both inorganic and organic contaminants, providing a superior alternative to commercial adsorbents. More work will be done in Phase II to further increase pilot production volume and yield, validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale wastewater treatment operations, and demonstrate commercial viability with a validated cost model.

Publications

Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of the project include the following: chemical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, and other industrial manufacturers that generate organic and inorganic pollutants in their waste stream, agricultural industry that generates biomass and wastes from its processing, and other industrial or domestic users that require high performance adsorbents to remove hazardous materials or purify their products. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Key results including composite adsorbent material properties and adsorption performance results have been selectively shared and discussed with partners and potential customers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A fundamental requirement for safe human life is the availability of clean and uncontaminated water. Global industrialization has led to increasing environmental pollution due to significant pollutant discharges from many industries. There are increasing concerns about these pollutants due to their potential toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. Innovative composite adsorbents using biomass materials have been successfully developed and are being scaled up to large scale production in Phase II. United States produces hundreds of millions of dry tons of biomass materials each year from forest and agricultural residues. The success of the Phase II project will contribute to increased utilization of forest materials, promote wood waste recycling, and improve water quality and conservation through effective wastewater treatment and reuse. The overall goal of the Phase II project is to scale up and optimize the composite adsorbent material formulation and fabrication process using biomass materials for wastewater treatment applications. The first objective of Phase II is to scale up composite adsorbent fabrication process from the lab process to pilot production. In mixing and granulation process scale-up, large volume processing equipment and more efficient fabrication process have been developed. Pilot production volume of biomass containing granules have been effectively produced with at least 90% yield in the desired granule size range. Key post-granulation composite adsorbent fabrication processes, including material strength development, biomass material activation, and composite phase formation, have been primarily established for pilot scale production and are being improved to increase production volume and reduce cycle time. The second objective of Phase II is to optimize material formulation and production process to improve composite adsorbent performance. In composite material formulation development and optimization for Phase II pilot production, low cost sustainable biomass materials have been successfully identified and established along with other raw materials to achieve excellent material processability in each of the processing step in the entire production process. Optimal composite material composition has been tentatively determined for pilot scale production and is being further improved to produce well-rounded composite adsorbents with superior adsorption capacity and mechanical strength to achieve high adsorption performance and long term durability in wastewater treatment. The third objective of Phase II is to validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale operations and establish effective operating conditions for wastewater treatment. Composite adsorbent performance and quality control methods have been further developed and improved. Initial composite adsorbent property and performance evaluation studies have demonstrated excellent adsorption performance for both inorganic and organic contaminants, superior to the performance of main commercial adsorbents. More work will be done in Phase II to further increase pilot production volume and yield, validate adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents through pilot scale wastewater treatment operations, and demonstrate commercial viability with a validated cost model.

Publications