Increasing industrial and agricultural activities lead to water contamination and its proper treatment has become a global issue. Several industries such as mining, poultry, beef, fruits/vegetable processors, agricultural farms, pulp and paper mills, chemical and metal plating use and produce water with industrial effluents containing metals and other contaminants. The water demand is predicted to increase significantly over the coming decades; especially large increases are predicted for industry and energy production. One such major energy production activity is oil sand mining. Alberta has a vast oil reserve where bitumen is extracted from surface-mined oil sands ore using hot water. The process generates fluid fine tailings that are deposited into tailing ponds for dewatering. The expressed porewater, known as process-affected water (OSPW), is then recycled in the bitumen extraction process. The recovery of OSPW from tailings for recycling and consolidation of tailings for effective reclamation are major issues. To address the treatment and disposal of millions of cubic meters of industrial wastewater, several water treatment approaches such as adsorption, biological treatment, advanced oxidation, membrane processes, and wetland remediation have been developed over the years. . Adsorption is considered an effective processing method for the removal of both heavy metals and other major organic contaminants. The flexibility, high removing ability, and recyclability of the adsorbent materials make adsorption a widely applied method for water treatment. The most common adsorbents which have been used to treat wastewaters include activated carbon, natural inorganic/organic materials, and synthetic polymers. Some of these adsorbents have been effective in adsorption of some selected contaminants such as metals to certain levels under specific pH conditions but poor removal rates were observed for multiple contaminants. Therefore, it is essential to identify low-cost, highly effective, and environmentally safe materials and methods to remove contaminants from wastewaters. This presentation will discuss the development of renewable biomaterials for the simultaneous removal of different contaminants from wastewaters.

Novel materials from renewable resources for water remediation

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.