• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2022

Adsorption tower systems based on activated carbon adsorption towers have mainly been employed to reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a major cause of air pollution. However, the activated carbon currently used in these systems has a short lifespan and thus requires frequent replacement. An approach to overcome this shortcoming could be to develop metal oxide photocatalysis-activated carbon composites capable of degrading VOCs by simultaneously utilizing photocatalytic activation and powerful adsorption by activated carbon. TiO₂ has primarily been used as a metal oxide photocatalyst, but it has low economic efficiency due to its high cost. In this study, ZnO particles were synthesized as a photocatalyst due to their relatively low cost. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were deposited on the ZnO surface to compensate for the photocatalytic deactivation that arises from the wide band gap of ZnO. A microfluidic process was used to synthesize ZnO particles and Ag NPs in separate reactors and the solutions were continuously supplied with a pack bed reactor loaded with activated carbon powder. This microfluidic-assisted pack bed reactor efficiently prepared a Ag-ZnO-activated carbon composite for VOC removal. Analysis confirmed that Ag-ZnO photocatalytic particles were successfully deposited on the surface of the activated carbon. Conducting a toluene gasbag test and adsorption breakpoint test demonstrated that the composite had a more efficient removal performance than pure activated carbon. The process proposed in this study efficiently produces photocatalysis-activated carbon composites and may offer the potential for scalable production of VOC removal composites.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.536-544
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• 2020

To address organic dye wastewater, economic and effective adsorbents are required. Here, magnetic biochar from alkali-activated rice straw (AMBC) was successfully synthesized using one-step magnetization and carbonization method. The alkaline activation caused the large specific surface area, high pore volume and abundant oxygen-containing groups of the AMBC, and the magnetization gave the AMBC a certain degree of electropositivity and fast equilibrium characteristics. These characteristics collectively contributed to a relative high adsorption capacity of 53.66 mg g^-1 for this adsorbent towards rhodamine B (RhB). In brief, RhB can spontaneously adsorb onto the heterogeneous surface of the AMBC and reach the equilibrium in 60 min. Although the initial pH, ionic strength and other substances of the solution affected the adsorption performance of the AMBC, it could be easily regenerated and reused with considerable adsorption content. Based on the results, H-bonds, π-π stacking and electrostatic interactions were speculated as the primary mechanisms for RhB adsorption onto the AMBC, which was also demonstrated by the FTIR analysis. With the advantageous features of low cost, easy separation, considerable adsorption capacity and favorable stability and reusability, the AMBC would be a potential adsorbent for removing organic dyes from wastewater.