Emerging contaminants are ubiquitous observed in source water and wastewater effluent, and they require advanced techniques to remove because traditional treatment fails to degrade them in entirety. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have emerged as a promising technique to treat emerging contaminants, however, their associated energy consumption and cost are always significant. Using waste heat as an energy source for AOPs will greatly reduce their energy footprint and cost, and tackle challenges of water-energy nexus, in turn making such techniques more sustainable. Pyroelectric materials convert heat into chemical energy (i.e., equivalent oxidizing agents), and it will be ideal to be used in AOPs with enhanced sustainability. Nanoparticulate pyroelectric material lithium niobate (LiNbO3) was synthesized by a sol-gel method, and LiNbO3 nanofibers with different diameters were prepared by electrospinning. Iron-doped LiNbO3 will also be synthesized by introducing iron precursors in preparation. Nanostructured LiNbO3 will be characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and liquid nitrogen adsorption for its morphology, composition, and physical/chemical properties. Preliminary results indicate that waste heat can indeed be used to drive pollutant transformation (i.e., oxidation of methylene blue). The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) will be measured on different LiNbO3 nanomaterials, and it will correlate with nanomaterial properties with the optimal performance. The pyroelectrocatalytic degradation of selected emerging contaminants, including diclofenac, diatrizoate, and carbamazepine, will be tested under a complex matrices of water chemistries to explore the efficacy and efficiency of this innovative technique in practice. Pyroelectrocatalytic oxidation represents a sustainable, next-generation AOP for contaminant removal that also promotes reuse.

Achieving sustainable water-energy: Waste-heat-driven advanced oxidation processes for removal of emerging contaminants

246th National Meeting (2013)

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