Proceedings of the 2020 Mississippi Water Resources Conference

Year: 2020 Authors: Zhang X., Zhang J., Mlsna T.

Non-point pollution (NPP) has been recognized as the leading source of water pollution in the United States, especially Mississippi, threatening water safety and human health. NPP originates from the agriculture and urban stormwater runoff containing major contaminants like nutrients, pesticides, and heavy metals. Today, treatment of NPP water remains a challenge due to no single absorbent can be used to effectively remove all major water contaminants. In this study, we developed a multifunctional biobased magnetic absorbent (MA) from forest residues for the cleaning of various water contaminants including heavy metals (Pb and As) and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrate). The biobased MA was synthesized via a catalytic thermal conversion process with iron nitrate as a catalyst at 1000 °C using a tubular furnace. The structure and morphology of biobased MA were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The performance of biobased MA was tested in terms of heavy metals and nutrients adsorption capacity as a function of time, concentration, and solution pH. This study demonstrates a multifunctional absorbent from renewable resources for NPP water treatment.