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Iron-aluminum and aluminum-single impregnated biochar composite for nitrate adsorption in rare earth wastewater: behavior and mechanism

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Abstract

The rare earth wastewater (REW) contains nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) and a large amount of metal ions. The commercial coconut shell biochar (CSHB), corn straw biochar (CSTB), and sawdust biochar (SDB) composites were fabricated by impregnating FeCl3 solution, AlCl3 solution, and FeCl3 and AlCl3 mixed solution, respectively. These composites were used as sorbents to remove NO3-N from pretreated REW (PREW). The influence of adsorbent dosage, pH, contact time, and temperature on the NO3-N removal was examined. Results revealed that Fe–Al impregnated CSHB (Fe–Al/CSHB) and Al-single impregnated CSTB (Al/CSTB) had good performance of NO3-N at pH 1, with equilibrium adsorption capacity of 1.32 and 0.86 mg g−1 at dosage of 5.3 and 8.0 g L−1, respectively. The adsorption capacity of Fe-Al/CSHB decreased and that of Al/CSTB increased with increasing of temperature. Characterization analysis of the composites indicated that the preparation process induced a layer of FeOOH, Fe2O3, Fe2+, and Al2O3 mixture on the surface of Fe–Al/CSHB, and Al element existed on the surface of Al/CSTB in the form of Al2O3. The pseudo-second-order model depicted NO3-N adsorption kinetics of Fe-Al/CSHB and Al/CSTB well. The electrostatic attraction may be the primary mechanism of NO3-N adsorption by Fe-Al/CSHB on account of the preferential complexation of Ca2+ with –OH (or Fe–O) functional group. Al/CSTB removed NO3-N by ligand exchange.

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Funding

This research was funded by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, grant number ZR2020MD108, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant numbers 41402208, 41703099, and 41771348.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, People’s Republic of China

    Hanyang You, Hongyang Lin, Yang Li & Yang Yang

  2. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, People’s Republic of China

    Yanfei Ma & Zhenxiao Shang

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  1. Hanyang You
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  7. Xiaoyin Niu
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Contributions

H.Y. conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript, H.L., Y.L. and Y.Y. conducted the sample characterizations, Y.M. obtained funding for this research and edited the manuscript, Z.S. supervised the experiments and revised the manuscript, and X.N. analyzed the data. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanfei Ma.

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You, H., Lin, H., Li, Y. et al. Iron-aluminum and aluminum-single impregnated biochar composite for nitrate adsorption in rare earth wastewater: behavior and mechanism. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 12705–12716 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-02148-8

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