Industrial and Domestic Waste Management

Soil Remediation by Nanotechnology: Valuating Materials, Mechanisms, and Environmental Impacts

Carol Emilly Hoareau, Clementine Kabeya — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The rapid growth of the human population and industrial activities has resulted in considerable environmental degradation. Processes such as industrialization, mining, agriculture, and waste disposal introduce harmful chemicals that contaminate soil, groundwater, and surface waters. Consequently, soil remediation has become a critical priority for many nations, given that soil quality directly affects agriculture and public health. Nanotechnology presents promising solutions to the shortcomings of traditional soil remediation methods by offering innovative materials and mechanisms for the removal or neutralization of contaminants. This review intends to evaluate the use of nanotechnology in soil remediation, emphasizing the nanomaterials employed, their reaction mechanisms, and potential environmental effects. Nanomaterials like nano zero-valent iron, metal oxides, and carbon-based materials have shown effectiveness in immobilizing, degrading, or extracting pollutants from soil and water through processes such as adsorption, photocatalysis, and filtration. However, certain nanomaterials raise concerns about toxicity and bioaccumulation, which may negatively affect ecosystems and human health. Therefore, additional research is needed to confirm the safety, compatibility, and sustainability of these technologies. This review also identifies significant challenges in the implementation of nanotechnologies for soil remediation and examines future directions and recommendations for addressing these challenges.

Environmental Management and Construction Waste Strategies in Malaysia: An Overview of Green Materials and Waste Management Challenge

Michael Lie, Nicholas Tam, Gaurav Talukdar — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This review provides an overview of Malaysia's environmental management practices, with a focus on construction waste management, to address the country's growing waste generation in the construction sector. The paper highlights key challenges Malaysia faces in implementing effective environmental practices and offers potential solutions to overcome these hurdles. Additionally, it examines the use of green materials, such as recycled concrete aggregate and bamboo, which have demonstrated significant potential in reducing resource consumption and carbon emissions. The challenges of adopting these materials are analyzed, along with a discussion of their advantages and limitations. Ultimately, the review underscores the importance of environmental management and the role of sustainable materials in transforming Malaysia’s construction industry, while calling for stronger regulatory frameworks and industry collaboration to address these challenges. The objective of this review is to provide insights into the current environmental management efforts in Malaysia and to explore the potential of green materials in mitigating environmental impacts.

Effect of Different Sizes and Heights on the Removal Efficiency of Composite Clay Filter for Gold Mine Site Wastewater Remediation

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Wastewater from mining-related activities contains toxic elements that require remediation, and most available wastewater filters have inconsistent flow rates and removal efficiency due to their thickness. This study, therefore, examined the effect of height and size on the flow rate and removal efficiency of a clay composite filter for wastewater remediation. The developed clay filter and its composites were characterized using various techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The XRF analysis showed that the clay contained 91.38% major minerals, including iron oxide (Fe2O3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and silica (SiO2), which could enhance the filtration process. Additionally, FTIR revealed that both the clay and the filter are rich in functional groups, including kaolinite and illite, which could promote the filtration process. Further analysis showed that the filters had an average adsorption rate of 87.32%, an average flow rate of 0.891 L/hr, and an average removal efficiency of 99.6%. An increase in the height of a small-diameter filter resulted in a 0.21% increase in removal efficiency, while for larger diameters, the removal efficiency decreased by 0.11%. Conversely, increasing the diameter of a short filter increased the efficiency by 0.25%, while for taller filters, the removal efficiency decreased by 0.07%. Therefore, this work demonstrated that both height and diameter have noticeable effects on flow rate: as height increases, flow rate decreases, and as diameter increases, flow rate increases. The filter's efficiency is somewhat affected by both height and diameter, with a small increase in efficiency noted at greater heights and a slight decrease in efficiency noted at larger diameters.

Effect of Different Biomass Levels of Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes on Nutrients, Organics, and Heavy Metals Removal from Wastewater

Adewale V. Ajiboye, Babajide Badmos, Adedeji A. Adelodun, Josiah O. Babatola — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the impact of varying biomass levels of Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) on the removal efficiency of nutrients, organic matter, and selected heavy metals from paint industry wastewater. The experiment was conducted using different biomass quantities of the aquatic plants to evaluate their phytoremediation capabilities. Changes in physicochemical parameters, nutrients, organic pollutants, and selected heavy metals were monitored over a 14-day period. At the end of week 1, water lettuce (WL) achieved removal efficiencies of 37.16%, 62.94%, and 38.47% for NO₃⁻, PO₄³⁻, and NH₃, respectively. Water hyacinth (WH) achieved removal efficiencies of 45.18%, 61.07%, and 45.86% for NO₃⁻, PO₄³⁻, and NH₃, respectively. Similarly, both plants significantly removed heavy metals, with WH achieving average removal efficiencies of 95.91%, 90.88%, and 67.68% for Cr, Pb, and Cu, respectively. WL achieved the highest average removal efficiencies of 90% and 88.9% for Zn and Cu, respectively. A statistically significant difference was observed among the biomass level treatments and heavy metal removal efficiencies (p < 0.05). The results indicate that both species effectively reduced nutrient, organic pollutant, and heavy metal concentrations, with higher biomass levels showing greater removal efficiencies. WH exhibited slightly better performance in removing all evaluated parameters in the wastewater treatment compared to WL. This study highlights the potential of these aquatic plants for phytoremediation applications in wastewater treatment systems. Optimization of biomass levels and operational conditions could enhance removal efficiencies and make the process more sustainable.

Household Solid Waste Management and Environmental Impacts in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Given the current rate of urbanization, municipalities in most Nigerian cities have struggled with the collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste. This is due to waste generation, both residential and commercial, occurring in a dispersed manner across homes, buildings, streets, parks, and even vacant spaces within communities. This manuscript aims to evaluate the state of municipal solid waste management in Ibadan, household solid waste storage practices, and the locations of solid waste storage containers (skip points) in relation to accessibility and health risks to the community, in accordance with Nigerian National Solid Waste Management Standards and other pertinent international standards. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 21 micro and small firms and 250 homes in each of the three local government areas of the metropolis, with descriptive statistics used to interpret the data. According to the study results, inadequate Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) service delivery in the Ibadan metropolitan area can be attributed to several issues, including a lack of institutional coordination among urban planners. The study’s conclusions indicate that the state of MSWM in the sampled areas is either inadequate or has poor spatial coverage and container utilization. Lastly, the study primarily suggests that these measures can reduce problems associated with MSWM by encouraging public-private partnerships, fostering effective institutional coordination with urban planner consultants in MSWM and skip-point location, and motivating the community to adopt integrated sustainable Solid Waste Management (SWM) strategies.