Cornelis, Geert
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Wastewater treatment (WWT) is generally efficient in removing nanoparticles (NPs) from sewage effluent, but the variety in removal rates has not yet been explained. WWT parameters such as the activated sludge (AS) concentration, shear rate and ionic strength were varied in kinetic batch attachment and sedimentation studies using silver NPs having nominal 20 or 80 nm sizes and citrate or PEG coatings. The fitted attachment and detachment rate constants and the resulting distribution ratios at steady state varied with WWT process parameters, but most notably with the NP size, which was also found to influence the settling rates most. The NP coating molecules had a limited or no effect. A meta-analysis of literature distribution ratios (attached/detached concentration) of NPs composed of Ag and other materials showed the NP (aggregate) size as the only significant parameter. However, while the distribution ratio of silver NPs to AS increased linearly with AS concentration, the final effect of NP effluent concentrations is partly offset by decreased sedimentation rates. The results thus confirm that a WWT process is efficient in removing NPs from wastewater, but relatively small (
Published in
Environmental Science: Nano
2017, volume: 4, number: 11, pages: 2225-2234
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
SDG6 Clean water and sanitation
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Sciences
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EN00734E
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93044