NOVEL ADSORBENT MATERIALS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1012570
• Grant No.: 2017-33610-26968
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $100,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2017-00534
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Project End Date: Oct 31, 2018
• Grant Year: 2017
• Program Code: [8.1]- Forests & Related Resources

Recipient Organization
NOVOREACH TECHNOLOGIES LLC
210 ARROW COVE
MIDLAND,MI 48642

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
With increasing global industrialization, hazardous pollutants such as pesticides, organic chemicals, and heavy metals are being produced in greater quantities by chemical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, and many other industries. Since these pollutants pose serious environmental and health threats, they need to be removed from waste streams such as wastewater before it can be discharged into the environment or reused. Adsorption is the most favorable method used to remove pollutants from wastewater due to its efficiency, high adsorption capacity, and low operational cost.In this proposal, novel adsorbent materials based on biomass and industrial waste materials will be developed for wastewater treatment applications. The proposed novel adsorbent materials will offer unique and versatile high performance adsorbent materials compared with conventional adsorbent materials. The successful development of the novel adsorbent materials using biomass waste materials will increase the utilization of woody resources for value-added products from wood and other agricultural materials, improve water quality and conservation through effective wastewater treatment and reuse, and reduce environmental impacts of biomass wastes.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

0%

Applied

100%

Developmental

0%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
403	0650	2000	60%
133	0210	2000	40%

Knowledge Area
403 - Waste Disposal, Recycling, and Reuse; 133 - Pollution Prevention and Mitigation;

Subject Of Investigation
0650 - Wood and wood products; 0210 - Water resources;

Field Of Science
2000 - Chemistry;

Keywords

adsorbent

biomass

wastewater

wood

Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of the proposed project is to develop novel adsorbent materials based on biomass and industrial waste materials for wastewater treatment applications. Three main objectives will be accomplished in the project in order to establish a solid foundation towards realizing the overall goal of the project. The first objective is to develop material formulation and fabrication process to fabricate adsorbent precursor materials with desired compositions and geometries. The second objective is to design and establish effective conversion processes to produce the novel composite adsorbents with desired microstructure and properties from the fabricated precursor materials. The third objective is to evaluate and improve organic and inorganic pollutant adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents for wastewater treatment applications.

Project Methods
The main purpose of the proposed is to demonstrate that the novel and versatile composite adsorbent can be produced using biomass and industrial waste materials. In the adsorbent precursor formulation and fabrication process development, the material formulation and adsorbent fabrication process will be investigated in order to adjust mixture rheology and reaction, develop adsorbent processing and shaping process, and achieve good mechanical properties. In the adsorbent conversation process, precursor material formulation and conversation process conditions will be studied to produce composite adsorbents with desired microstructure and properties. The adsorption performance of the produced composite adsorbents will be evaluated using organic and inorganic pollutants commonly presented in industrial and agricultural wastewater and further improve their performance through optimization.

Progress 09/01/17 to 10/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Environmental regulations require that hazardous pollutants must be removed from waste steams such as wastewater before they can be discharged into the environment or reused. Pollutant removal is commonly achieved through adsorption using porous adsorbents. The Phase I project utilized biomass waste materials to produce novel composite adsorbents for wastewater treatment and reuse. United States produces about half of billion dry tons of biomass materials from forest and agricultural residuals each year. Most of the biomass materials are left in the field or combusted as an energy resource. The novel adsorbent manufacturing technology will assist rural communities to utilize biomass waste materials to produce value-added products for pollution control and water treatment applications. The novel composite adsorbents will provide a low-cost and high-performance versatile adsorbent solution for a variety of industries such as automotive, petroleum refining, organic chemicals, pharmaceutical, fertilizer, and many others that produce waste streams with complex pollutant compositions. 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 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? Innovative composite adsorbents with advanced material properties and superior adsorption performance have been successfully produced using biomass waste and inorganic precursor materials. Biomass waste materials were effectively processed and formulated with precursor materials to produce green adsorbent granules with desired composite material composition, spherical shape, and particle size. The amount of biomass incorporation could be easily adjusted to tailor the properties and adsorption performance of the composite adsorbents. To produce composite adsorbents with advanced microstructure and adsorption properties, an innovative activation and conversion process was successfully developed to convert the biomass and inorganic precursor materials in the green adsorbent granules to highly porous adsorbent components capable of adsorbing both inorganic and organic pollutants. The produced composite adsorbents were evaluated in both batch and fixed bed adsorption experiments using inorganic and organic pollutants that are produced by many industries. The composite adsorbents have demonstrated superior inorganic and organic pollutant removing capabilities that are unmatched by individual commonly used adsorbents such as activated carbon, zeolite, clay, or others.

Publications