Experimental investigation of groundwater contamination by surface sources: Determination of adsorption capacity,diffusion, and sorption potential of selected anions in different soils

The present study investigated the fate and transport of two significant anions through soil to explore their potential as groundwater contaminants. The retention properties of chloride and sulfate in soils having several significantly different characteristics (soil‐1 and soil‐2) were determined using adsorption test and adsorption‐diffusion column experiments. The maximum adsorption capacity of chloride was 3.7 and 1.16 mg/g, respectively, in soil‐1 and soil‐2, with organic matter (OM) content of 3.92% and 4.69%, respectively. The sulfate adsorption obtained was 24.09% and 13.83%, respectively, in the two soils. The anions exhibited monolayer adsorption in the soils with replacement of hydroxyl ions from soils as the major mechanism of adsorption. On the other hand, the adsorption capacities obtained from the adsorption‐diffusion column experiment were about 100 times lower compared to that of the column tests of both of the soils. The maximum adsorption capacity of chloride was 0.03 mg/g and 0.01 mg/g, respectively, in soil‐1 and soil‐2, whereas that of sulfate was 0.04 mg/g and 0.03 mg/g. The empirical relation for depth of penetration (d) from a known spillage onto the soil surface was determined as a function of sorption capacity (S) and initial anion concentration (C) as d = 0.0073e^(?57S)C and d = 0.0038e^(?35S)C for chloride and sulfate, respectively.     

Carbofuran removal in continuous-photocatalytic reactor: Reactor optimization,rate-constant determination and carbofuran degradation pathway analysis

Carbofuran (CBF) removal in a continuous-flow photocatalytic reactor with granular activated carbon supported titanium dioxide (GAC-TiO₂) catalyst was investigated. The effects of feed flow rate, TiO₂ concentration and addition of supplementary oxidants on CBF removal were investigated. The central composite design (CCD) was used to design the experiments and to estimate the effects of feed flow rate and TiO₂ concentration on CBF removal. The outcome of CCD experiments demonstrated that reactor performance was influenced mainly by feed flow rate compared to TiO₂ concentration. A second-order polynomial model developed based on CCD experiments fitted the experimental data with good correlation (R² ～ 0.964). The addition of 1 mL min^?1 hydrogen peroxide has shown complete CBF degradation and 76% chemical oxygen demand removal under the following operating conditions of CBF ～50 mg L^?1, TiO₂ ～5 mg L^?1 and feed flow rate ～82.5 mL min^?1. Rate constant of the photodegradation process was also calculated by applying the kinetic data in pseudo-first-order kinetics. Four major degradation intermediates of CBF were identified using GC-MS analysis. As a whole, the reactor system and GAC-TiO₂ catalyst used could be constructive in cost-effective CBF removal with no impact to receiving environment through getaway of photocatalyst.     

Estimation of effect of sugarcane bagasse biochar amendment in landfill soil cover on geotechnical properties and landfill gas emission

In a sanitary landfill, the final cover plays an important role in reducing the landfill gas emission to the atmosphere and in preventing the ingress of rainwater into the dumped waste. The present study investigated the suitability of sugarcane bagasse biochar as an amendment to the cover soil to improve the required landfill liner properties. The amended cover soil sugarcane bagasse (SSB) was tested for its stability and effectiveness, in terms of both geotechnical properties and methane mitigation efficiency. The effects of amending 15%, 20%, and 25% of sugarcane bagasse biochar (passing through 300 micron Indian Standard sieve) on the geotechnical properties of the SSB indicated that the SSB with 25% biochar showed the required values as per the standard with maximum dry density of 1.57 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm³), liquid limit, plasticity index, and percentage of fines 48.5%, 16.3%, and 74.7%, respectively, and permeability of 0.9 × 10^?7. A column study that was conducted to determine the methane emission from the cover soil showed a 65.8% reduction in the methane emission compared to that of a column without SSB cover, with a cumulative methane emission of 410 milliliters (mL) at the end of 200 hours (h). On the other hand, the volume of methane emitted after 310 h from the column without cover and with the SSB cover was 1850 mL and 692 mL, respectively. The difference between these two values is found to be 22% of the total methane that the cover would have handled in its lifetime (5267 mL). Thus, there is an increase in the percentage of methane adsorption by soil cover from 15% to 22% when the soil was amended with 25% sugarcane bagasse biochar.     

Carbofuran degradation by the application of MW-assisted H₂O₂ process

Carbofuran removal performance of a microwave (MW)-assisted H?O? system under different MW-power levels (300-900 W) was investigated. Batch experiments were conducted at 100 mg/L carbofuran concentration using a modified-MW reactor with 2450 MHz of fixed frequency. As a precursor, control experiments were carried out with H?O? alone, MW alone and conventional heating (CH). A maximum carbofuran removal of 14 % was observed in both H?O? alone and CH systems. On the other hand, only 2 % removal was observed in the MW alone system irrespective of the operation-mode, i.e. continuous or pulsed. The combination of MW and H?O? produced 100 % carbofuran removal in all the MW-assisted experiments. The MW-assisted system operated under continuous-mode and at 750 W has showed rapid carbofuran degradation, i.e. 30 sec, with the highest first-order removal rate constant of 25.82/min. However, 97 % carbon oxygen demand (COD) removal was observed in the same system only after 30 min. On the other hand, 100 % carbofuran removal and 49 % COD removal were observed in the pulsed-mode MW-assisted H?O? system after 10 and 30 min, respectively. Carbofuran mineralization in the system was evidenced by the formation of ammonium and nitrate, and carbofuran intermediates.     

Biochar production from agricultural biomass through microwave-assisted pyrolysis: predictive modelling and experimental validation of biochar yield

Environment, Development and Sustainability - A machine learning model for microwave-assisted pyrolysis technology was developed in this study. The data set of 112 unique experiments was created by...