Search

Car wash services generate wastewater that consists of many contaminants. The discharge of raw car wash wastewater would bring adverse impacts to the environment. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the use of activated carbon derived from coconut shells to treat car wash wastewater. In this study, activated carbon (AC) prepared from coconut shells shows a good microporosity structure with functional groups on the surface. The performance of activated carbon prepared is evaluated by determining the removal efficiency of the parameter including COD, BOD, and heavy metals concentration (zinc and iron) from car wash wastewater. The operating parameters are dosage (0.2 - 1.0 g/100 mL), contact time of 30 min-150 min and pH adjustment (pH 3 - pH 9). Throughout the research, the highest removal efficiencies of COD, BOD, zinc, and iron from automatic car wash wastewater are 91.03 %, 88.51 %, 68.25 %, and 86.09 % respectively achieved by 0.8 g of carbon dosage under 90 rpm agitation speed for 60 min. Under the same operational condition, CSAC removed 84.43 % COD, 81.80 % BOD, 59.78 % zinc, and 78.58 % iron from manual car wash wastewater. Therefore, the removal of pollutants from car wash water by using activated carbon derived from coconut shells has been proven to be an effective method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen (N) and cerium (Ce) co-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) supported activated carbon (AC) (N-Ce-AC/TiO2) were synthesized to remove antibiotic tetracycline from aqueous solution via adsorption and photodegradation. The sol--gel technique, aided by microwave radiation, was used to synthesize N-Ce-AC/TiO2. Central composite design under response surface methodology was used to optimize the variables comprising urea (N source) (A: 0.02-0.20 g), cerium(III) nitrate hexahydrate (Ce source) (B: 0.02-0.20 g), activated carbon (C: 0.10-0.50 g), and microwave power (D: 600--800 W), where the degradation of tetracycline was the response. Characterization of the produced catalyst was carried out by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the Brunauer--Emmett--Teller method for determining surface-texture parameters. N-Ce-AC/TiO2 prepared with 0.50 g activated carbon, doped with 0.02 g urea and 0.20 g cerium, and activated at microwave power 600 W for 15 min exhibited 91.08% tetracycline removal when subjected to 7 W of UV irradiation, according to the results of optimal variable preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of microplastics (MPs) in sea salt pond has the potential to pollute produced commercial salt. Therefore, identification and quantification of MPs in sea salt pond become necessary. This study was aimed to estimate the abundance of MPs in Osowilangun and Pademawu sea salt ponds producing commercial salt. Properties of the identified MPs in terms of shapes, color, size, and polymer type were characterized. This study found that the two study locations contained MPs with different levels, namely, a total of 38 particles were found in the Pademawu sea salt pond and 35 particles were found in the Osowilangun sea salt pond. Colors for the identified MPs were blue, black, red, and white depending on the sampling points and samples. In addition, size of MPs ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 mm and shape of MPs was dominated by fragment (90.32%) in Osowilangun sea salt pond and 86.98% in Pademawu sea salt pond. Findings of this study are highly important and significant for confirming the presence of MPs in sea salt ponds before producing for consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developed countries, contamination of soil due to industrial activities and illegal toxic waste disposal has been identified as major environmental problems. Established mechanisms for identifying, prioritizing, characterizing, assessing, and improving soil conditions have been implemented to reduce risks to human health and environmental receptors. However, the Contaminated Land Management System (CLMS) and the practices for the management of this contaminated land in Malaysia, including the enforcement of legislation are ineffective. The objective of this study is to discuss an overview of potential chemical substances, especially regarding its existence in contaminated soil in Malaysia. The report also examines the parameters of several heavy metals especially arsenic and mercury found in contaminated soil areas. In addition, this study is an explanatory effort to assess the level and characteristics of illegal disposal including current enforcement practices in Malaysia after three guidelines related to contaminated land management were developed by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia in 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the causes of river pollution are due to the impact of human activities through the development of new construction projects, agriculture, industry and others. As an alternative to deal with this problem, macro-composite has been used as a pretreatment process to treat wastewater before discharge into the river. Therefore, this study aims to characterize the water quality of the effluent and to investigate the treatment efficiency of different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) using macro-composite technology in treating the effluent from Flat Taman Jaya. The parameters tested were chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), pH, total suspended solid (TSS), turbidity and total phosphate (TP). The efficacy of the macro-composites was tested by immersing 70% of the macro-composites into the 750 mL wastewater sample for five different periods. The results of each wastewater sample were measured after 2 d of treatment. The results showed that the most efficient treatment was achieved with the macro-composite at 3 d HRT with COD, NH3-N, TSS, turbidity and TP removal of 80%, 97%, 60%, 49% and 89%, respectively, at pH 7.33. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The area of polluted water expands day by day due to the rapid increase in agricultural activities. Application and the excessive amount of fertilizer in the agricultural activity can reduce the water quality. One of the alternative way to remove pollutants from polluted water is phytoremediation technique. This paper attempt to evaluate the potential of Azolla pinnata act as a phytoremediation to treat the agricultural water. Three types of media with different dosage which are tap water, water added with organic fertilizer (chicken manure: dosage range of 10-30 g), and water added with inorganic fertilizer (growing fertilizer: dosage range of 10-30 g) were employed. Media B10 (water added with 10 g organic fertilizer) had the highest removal efficiencies for NH3-N, PO3-4, and NO-3 with 25%, 38.5% and 30%. In addition, turbidity and pH value diminished to 15.65% and 18.6%, respectively. However, it indicated that Azolla pinnata has the potential as an agent of phytoremediation especially for water polluted with organic fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater recycling plays an important role in minimizing water loss. The recycled wastewater can be utilized for many purposes from irrigation to portable water supply. Numbers of wastewater treatment system have been applied in Malaysia to achieve quality in meeting the intended purpose of wastewater recycling. Although there are many studies reported on the efficiency of the treatment technologies, comparative assessments including the significant purpose until the estimation of operational expenditure for each of the treatment technologies are lacking. Therefore, this brief review aims to critically discuss each of the treatment technologies from the secondary treatments, tertiary treatments, to the advanced treatments. Based on our review, the conventional activated sludge system has high potential for wastewater recycling due to lower cost in terms of population equivalent and shows great removal efficiency among secondary treatment while sand filtration and activated carbon is the better options for tertiary and advanced treatment. Therefore, it can be concluded that conventional activated sludge system, sand filtrations and activated carbon process is the most feasible in terms of removal performance and cost effectiveness for secondary, tertiary and advanced treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of highly polluted waste cooking oil (WCO) that contains both inorganic and organic compounds has been increased in Malaysia particularly in food industries. This study was aimed to utilize a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in order to investigate the aerobic treatment of WCO. The system was operated at pH ranging from 4 to 5 and temperature ranged from 25°C to 31°C. The SBR reactor was fabricated using Perspex with a working volume of 2 L. Experiments were conducted daily at fill, react, settle, draw, and idle phase at 1, 1, 2, 1, and 1 h, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity were assessed in determining SBR performance. Highest COD removal and turbidity values were at 67% and 0.94 NTU, respectively. A stable effluent quality was achieved after 13 d of operational investigation. In general, the SBR treatment was able to achieve acceptable discharge limit for the final treated effluent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast amount of dye effluent is continually released into the water, posing a significant hazard to the natural environment and human health. This study aims to investigate the adsorption of methylene blue from an aqueous solution using orange peel as activated carbon. To comprehend the adsorption behavior, the influences of adsorbent dose (0.1-0.8 g), starting dye concentration (10-80 mg/L), and contact duration (10-80 min) were investigated. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to recognize the functional group in orange peel. A non-linear pseudo-first-order reaction could describe the adsorption process. The process was best fitted with the Langmuir isotherm than the Freundlich isotherm. The results obtained were a high level of color removal achieved within a short time which was 50 min, and orange peel held as a potential low-cost adsorbent for dye removal from industrial wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, polyacrylamide was grafted onto the backbone of cellulose extracted from waste newspapers by conducting microwave-assisted synthesis of polyacrylamide grafted cellulose (PAM-gcellulose). The cellulose was extracted from the waste newspaper by a chemical treatment involving alkaline and bleaching treatment. The characterization result by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer. The grafted copolymers have been synthesized by varying the ratio of cellulose to acrylamide. Scanning electron microscopy and FTIR confirmed the successfulness of copolymer grafting. The flocculation studies of the PAM-g-cellulose were evaluated in a synthetic kaolin suspension using the standard jar test method at various flocculant dosages, initial kaolin concentration, and pH conditions. It was found that PAM-g-cellulose with a molar ratio of cellulose to acrylamide is 1:7 exhibited a highly effective flocculation capability (96.2%) as compared to other synthesized grafted copolymer. The results indicated that the flocculant dosage and pH affected the flocculation efficiency significantly. The optimum condition for the turbidity reduction of kaolin suspension was achieved at a flocculant dosage of 200 ppm in an acidic pH 3 with a decrease in turbidity levels of 82.8%. Overall, the results demonstrated the potential of PAM-gcellulose extracted from waste newspaper to serve as eco-friendly flocculants in water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, development of an efficient natural adsorbent to remove pollutions becomes crucial since adsorbents derived from chemicals have several shortcomings such as their potential as a new pollution in the environment. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the capability of sewage sludge biochar for the removal of dye. Sewage sludge biochar was synthesized by pyrolysis at different temperatures, which were 350°C, 450°C, 550°C, 650°C, 750°C, and 850°C. The characterization of biochar was conducted by analyzing the percentage yield, ash content, moisture content, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and pH zero charge. This study found that as the pyrolysis temperature increased, the percentage yield along with moisture content decreased meanwhile the ash content increased. For kinetic studies, pseudo-second-order model gave better result than pseudo-first-order model indicating that adsorption mainly takes place on chemical adsorption. The applicability of adsorption isotherm analyses indicates that the adsorption mechanism followed Freundlich isotherm compared to Langmuir as Freundlich give value of R2 nearer to 1 (0.9962). It showed that adsorption mechanism behaves in a multi-molecular layer and the adsorption sites are heterogenous on the sewage sludge biochar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainwater is an alternative water resource and it is relatively clean. In addition, it can be categorized as a free source and can be collected in a considerable quantity from roof catchments. The aim of this study was to investigate the rainwater quality collected in the Islamic Boarding School of Adduriyah Bangkes, Indonesia. Various water samples including rainfall and rainwater falling on different rooftop types such as clay tile roof, metal sheet tile roof, old metal sheet tile roof, and concrete tile roof were collected and analyzed. In this study, physical and chemical properties of all water samples were examined. In general, the study observed that the quality of rainwater was relatively clean and can be possible to be used for several non-potable purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]