Engineering and Technology Journal

Membrane distillation (MD) faces challenges in the form of diminished permeate flux attributed to the loss of hydrophobicity with time. Nanomaterials play an essential role in enhancing the performance of MD through membrane modification during formation or surface modification. Numerous nanomaterials have been investigated, particularly for flat sheet polyvinylidene fluorides (PVDF). These nanomaterials have provided unparalleled opportunities for the MD process application, such as increased water desalination efficiency, improved membrane durability, and reduced energy consumption. Adding nanomaterials changed the MD membrane properties, such as the size of the pores, porosity, and hydrophobicity, which significantly enhanced MD efficiency. However, some are sometimes exposed to peel-off or release to the distillate, which causes second contamination (leaching of nanomaterials). This review provides a comprehensive insight into the impact of different nanomaterials on the performance of flat sheet PVDF membranes and their stability over extended operations in MD for water desalination

Surface water, wastewater, and drinking water have all been found to contain paracetamol and its toxic breakdown products. Effective ways to degrade these products must be discovered to lessen their harmful effects on aquatic microorganisms and human health. The study focuses on finding effective methods to degrade harmful products, specifically paracetamol, to mitigate their negative impact on aquatic microorganisms and human health. To achieve this, the research investigates a photocatalytic process enhanced by introducing air bubbles, aiming to improve the degradation of paracetamol. The experiments were carried out in a batch reactor and a semi-batch rectangular bubble column, which measured 1500 mm in height, 30 mm in depth, and 200 mm in width, all under UV light. Titanium oxide (TiO2) served as the catalyst. The study examined the impact of various operating conditions, pH levels (ranging from 3 to 10), airflow rates (0 to 2 L/min), and irradiation times (0 to 240 minutes) on the removal of paracetamol the results show that changes in pH values affected the photodegradation of paracetamol, and using pH 7 gives higher COD removal percentage values. Indeed, using air bubbles improves the COD removal percentage to 78%. The degradation of paracetamol was investigated using HPLC analysis, and the maximum removal of paracetamol was 91.2% using optimum operating conditions of pH=7, flow rate 1 L/min, after 240 min. The kinetic study is consistent with the pseudo-first-order reaction model

The textile industry is one of the largest polluters of water resources, producing effluents containing complex mixtures of pollutants such as dyes, heavy metals, and high biological oxygen demand. Electrocoagulation (EC) is an efficient wastewater treatment technique that uses iron or aluminum electrodes to coagulate and adsorb pollutants. This work assesses the performance of EC for textile wastewater treatment to identify the best combination of pH (5-9), electrolysis time (20-60 min), and voltage (5-11 V) on Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and color removal. The results show that voltage and electrolysis time had a positive effect on the efficiencies of pollutant removal, reaching the maximum efficiency of 70.06 and 87.36 when pH was 7, electrolysis time 60 min, and 11 V. The quadratic regression models obtained by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) had good predictive ability with the adjusted R² of 0.9684 for COD and 0.9843 for color. Statistical significance of the pH, voltage, and their interaction was further verified using the ANOVA test as significant factors that helped to explain the treatment effect. This study also highlights the possibility of using EC as a cost-effective and energy-saving technology compared to conventional chemical coagulation and advanced oxidation processes, with satisfactory treatment obtained at modest voltage and time demands. The study contributes to the knowledge of parameter optimization and enhances the applicability of EC in reducing the effects of textile effluents on the environment.