The need for alternative water sources is dramatically increasing. Nontraditional water sources (e.g., municipal and animal wastewater) receive increasing interest due to their potential to reuse water for human activities, which can alleviate the water scarcity in agriculture while realizing a circular water economy. Treated wastewater contains particulate and dissolved organic matter, inorganic substances (e.g., nutrients), metals, microorganisms, and chemicals of emerging concern (CECs). Low-cost water treatments (e.g., slow sand filtration) represent a suitable solution due to their simplicity of construction and maintenance and their affordability. However, due to their limited sorption capacity, they showed a limited ability to remove CECs. To increase the sorption capacity, and consequently the implementation of low-cost water treatment, the use of nanomaterials, including graphene, increased during the past year. In this study, we hypothesized that graphene-coated sand (GCS) can extend the implementation of water reuse by improving water quality by removing CECs and nutrients. Flow-through column investigations were conducted throughout the study. Three different types of sand (Ottawa–naturally round shape with up to 90% of quartz content, concrete–sub-angular shape with approximately 85% of quartz content, and masonry –sub-rounded and sub-angular with up to 99% of quartz content) coated with graphene obtained from the dehydrogenation of sugar in an inter environment under high temperature were used as packing material. Treated wastewater, collected before UV light disinfection, was used as feed water. Preliminary results suggested that 1) the quartz content had a limited impact on the coating efficiency, 2) the shape of the particles significantly impacted the coating efficiency, and 3) the graphene-coated sand was effective in removing turbidity and bacteria in the presence of normal as well as environmentally challenging conditions.

Ability of graphene-coated sand to remove chemicals of emerging concern and nutrients from municipal wastewater

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