A combined system of microwave-functionalized rice husk and poly-aluminium chloride for trace cadmium-contaminated source water purification: Exploration of removal efficiency and mechanism

Jianhua Qu; Xianlin Meng; Ying Zhang; Qingjuan Meng; Yue Tao; Qi Hu; Xingying Jiang; Hong You; Christine A Shoemaker

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120804

A combined system of microwave-functionalized rice husk and poly-aluminium chloride for trace cadmium-contaminated source water purification: Exploration of removal efficiency and mechanism

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Nov 5:379:120804. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120804. Epub 2019 Jun 20.

Authors

Jianhua Qu¹, Xianlin Meng², Ying Zhang³, Qingjuan Meng⁴, Yue Tao⁴, Qi Hu⁵, Xingying Jiang⁶, Hong You⁶, Christine A Shoemaker⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Resources and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management, National University of Singapore, 117576 Singapore, Singapore.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: hgdmxl@163.com.
³ School of Resources and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China. Electronic address: zhangying_neau@163.com.
⁴ School of Resources and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
⁵ School of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province 110016, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
⁷ Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management, National University of Singapore, 117576 Singapore, Singapore.

PMID: 31254783
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120804

Abstract

Cadmium is highly poisonous to mammals and related water pollution incidents are increasing world-widely. Here, the clean-up of trace Cd(II) by a combined process of microwave-functionalized rice husk (RH_MW-M) and poly aluminium chloride (PAC) was investigated for the first time, with the exploration of removal mechanism and efficacy. Microwave irradiation was found to be a new approach to achieve the functionalized procedure, which could decrease the processing time from 2.5 h to 390 s with the Cd(II) uptake of the outcome product soaring from 137.16 mg/g to 191.32 mg/g. The ultra-rapidly prepared RH_MW-M exhibited a fast adsorption equilibrium within 30 min over a wide pH range of 5.0-8.0, and the FT-IR and XPS studies confirmed that both ion exchange and chelation were functioned in the Cd(II) uptake process. Controlled by the turbidity threshold of drinking water treatment plant, the feasible dosage of RH_MW-M in the absence and presence of 30 mg/L PAC increased from 30 to 760 mg/L, which could effectively deal with the trace Cd(II) at the concentration from 33 μg/L up to 0.933 mg/L, exhibiting much better performance than traditional alkali precipitation. Predictably, this simple and scalable RH_MW-M/PAC system could afford a promising end-of-pipe solution for heavy-metal contamination.

Keywords: Adsorption; Cadmium removal; Combined process; Drinking water source; Microwave-assisted preparation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aluminum Hydroxide / chemistry*
Cadmium / isolation & purification*
Kinetics
Microwaves*
Oryza / chemistry*
Plant Epidermis / chemistry*
Rivers / chemistry*
Surface Properties
Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification*
Water Purification / methods*

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Cadmium
aluminum oxychloride
Aluminum Hydroxide