To deal with issues of process sustainability, cost, and efficiency, we developed materials reengineered from fibers to serve as super-bridging agents, adsorbents, and ballast media. These sustainable fiber-based materials considerably increased the floc size (~6,630 µm) compared to conventional physicochemical treatment using a coagulant and a flocculant (~520 µm). The materials also reduced coagulant usage (up to 40%) and flocculant usage (up to 60%). These materials could be used in synergy with coagulants and flocculants to improve settling in existing water treatment processes and allow facilities to reduce their capital and operating costs as well as their environmental footprint. Moreover, the super-sized flocs produced using fiber-based materials (up to ~13 times larger compared to conventional treatment) enabled easy floc removal by screening, eliminating the need for a settling tank, a large and costly process unit. The materials can be effective solutions at removing classical (e.g., natural organic matter (NOM) and phosphorus) and emerging contaminants (e.g., microplastics and nanoplastics). Due to their large size, Si- and Fe-grafted fiber-based materials can be easily recovered from sludge and reused multiple times.

为了解决工艺可持续性、成本和效率问题，我们开发了从纤维中重新设计的材料，以用作超级架桥剂、吸附剂和压载介质。与使用混凝剂和絮凝剂 (~520 µm) 的传统物理化学处理相比，这些可持续纤维基材料显着增加了絮凝物尺寸 (~6,630 µm)。这些材料还减少了混凝剂的使用（高达 40%）和絮凝剂的使用（高达 60%）。这些材料可与混凝剂和絮凝剂协同使用，以改善现有水处理过程中的沉降，并使设施降低其资本和运营成本以及环境足迹。而且，使用基于纤维的材料生产的超大尺寸絮凝物（与传统处理相比最大可达约 13 倍），可以通过筛分轻松去除絮凝物，无需沉淀池，即大型且昂贵的工艺单元。这些材料可以成为去除传统污染物（例如，天然有机物 (NOM) 和磷）和新兴污染物（例如，微塑料和纳米塑料）的有效解决方案。由于尺寸大，Si 和 Fe 接枝的纤维基材料可以很容易地从污泥中回收并多次重复使用。