Current sources of ammonium pollution come largely from agriculture, urban sewage and industrial wastewater, which is expected to rise as the world population continues to increase. As the demands for food and water expand, new means for more sustainable water purification and effective plant fertilization are necessary.<br/>In our previous study, we demonstrated the cost-effective nitro-oxidation method using the combination of nitric acid and sodium nitrite that can simultaneously carboxylate and defibrillate raw biomass and yield carboxylated nanocellulose. In this study, raw jute fibers were chosen to generate nitro-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (NOCNF) having a length of 300-400 nm and cross-sectional width of 5-10 nm. A 0.126 wt% NOCNF suspension contained a carboxylate concentration of 0.309 mmol/g and zeta potential of -116.2 mV. An ammonium remediation test was applied to this suspension using ammonium persulfate solutions with concentrations from 2.5 – 125 ppm, where the ammonium adsorption capacity is shown in Figure 1. It was found that the adsorption curve closely followed the Langmuir isotherm, and exhibited a capacity of 14.6 mg/g (milligrams of ammonium per gram of solid NOCNF) at an equilibrium ammonium concentration of 62.5 mg/L. The maximum adsorption occurred at pH = 4.0, where the capacity was 17.8 mg/g at an equilibrium concentration of 62.5 mg/L. Further characterizations of the ammonium-adsorbed NOCNF included electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR, and elemental analysis. The ammonium-adsorbed NOCNF may be used as a cheap, biodegradable and slow released fertilizer for plant growth.<sup> </sup>This research indicates that with NOCNF extracted from agricultural residual, a new nexus of food, energy and water systems may be obtained.

Ammonium remediation using nitro-oxidized cellulose nanofibers as a slow release fertilizer

2019 Spring National Meeting

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