Anomalous Sequence of Quantum Hall Liquids Revealing a Tunable Lifshitz Transition in Bilayer Graphene

Abstract : The robustness of reverse osmosis (RO) against polar organic micropollutants (MPs) was investigated in pilot-scale drinking water treatment. Experiments were carried in hypoxic conditions to treat a raw anaerobic riverbank filtrate spiked with a mixture of thirty model compounds. The chemicals were selected from scientific literature data based on their relevance for the quality of freshwater systems, RO permeate and drinking water. MPs passage and the influence of permeate flux were evaluated with a typical low-pressure RO membrane and quantified by liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry. A strong inverse correlation between size and passage of neutral hydrophilic compounds was observed. This correlation was weaker for moderately hydrophobic MPs. Anionic MPs displayed nearly no passage due to electrostatic repulsion with the negatively charged membrane surface, whereas breakthrough of small cationic MPs could be observed. The passage figures observed for the investigated set of MPs ranged from less than 1%e25%. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between physicochemical properties and passage. The effects of permeate flux were more pronounced for small neutral MPs, which displayed a higher passage after a pressure drop.

Water is one of the world’s most abundant resources, but less than 1% of the global supply of water is available and safe for human consumption [1]. According to the World Health Organization, over 760 million people were without adequate drinking water supply in 2011 [2]. Where it is available, the cost of potable water is rising due to increasing energy costs, growing populations, and climatic or other environmental issues [1,3]. In addition, an increasing number of drinking water sources are showing evidence of contamination, especially by emerging pollutants like pharmaceuticals and personal care products [4,5]. Many traditional water and wastewater treatment methods do not effectively remove these emerging contaminants, and/or are not capable of removing enough to meet increasingly stringent water quality standards [5,6]. Contamination of surface waters also constitutes a risk to water supplies because pollutants may penetrate into aquifers, where they can be transported to drinking water sources.

 Introduction Industrial wastewater treatment, such as those used for tannery wastewater, is complex due to the variety of chemicals added at different stages of processing of hides and skins. Major problems in tanneries are due to wastewater containing heavy metals, toxic chemicals, chloride, lime with high dissolved and suspended salts and other pollutants (Uberoi, 2003). The tanning process and the effluents generated have already been reported in literature (Wiegant et al., 1999, Sreeram and Ramasami, 2003, Stoop, 2003). Many conventional processes were carried out to treat wastewater such as biological process (Ahn et al., 1996, Vijayaraghavan and Murthy, 1997, Wiemann et al., 1998, Di Iaconi et al., 2003, Farabegoli et al., 2004), oxidation process (Sekaran et al., 1996, Dogruel et al., 2004, Sacco et al., 2012, de Caprariis et al., 2012) and chemical process (Di Iaconi et al., 2001, Orhon et al., 1998, Song et al., 2004) etc. Among these, physical and chemical methods are considered very expensive in terms of energy and reagents consumption (Churchley, 1994, Stern et al., 2003), and generation of excessive sludge (Chu, 2001). To reduce the production of sludge by the treatment of this wastewater combined or alternative systems must be explored. In particular, in this work, two spiral wound membrane modules were used: nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). The goal of this approach is to insert membranes into the cycle of wastewater treatment in order to remove the entire chain of biological treatment and the resulting post physico[1]chemical residue with a significant reduction of sludge up to 95%. A modified version of the traditional method used to measure critical fluxes of membranes, that is the pressure cycling method, was applied to measure both the critical and the threshold flux on the nanofiltration membrane in order to optimize the operating conditions. Once obtained the critical and threshold flux values, this data was used as input for a batch membrane process optimization method developed previously by Stoller at al. (Stoller and Chianese, 2006, Stoller and Bravi, 2010, Stoller, 2009, Iaquinta et al., 2009, Stoller, 2008, Stoller, 2011). The output of the method indicates the optimal permeate feed flow rate which should be used during the batch in order to inhibit membrane fouling. Finally, the obtained results were compared from an economical point of view with a conventional biological process to validate the membrane plant as possible alternative to conventional process.

Abstract This study reports the competitive adsorption of Ni(II), Cd(II) and Cr(VI) onto sunflower waste biomass carbons, viz. sunflower head carbon and sunflower stem carbon from multi-metal aqueous solution.

Abstract: Waste water treatment issues have been a growing problems these days. Its treatment is becoming must in this Industrial world. Nanoparticles have a great potential to be used in waste water treatment. Some of the unique characteristics of it having high surface area can be used efficiently for removing toxic metal ions, disease causing microbes, inorganic and organic solutes from water. The different classes of nanomaterials also have the authority to be efficient for water treatment like metal-containing nanoparticles, carbonaceous nanomaterials and zeolites. The review includes recent development in nanotechnology for water and wastewater treatment. The paper covers nanomaterials that enables the applications, advantages and limitations as compared to existing processes. Nanotechnology has led to various efficient ways for treatment of waste water in a more precise and accurate way on both small and large scale.