Advanced Wastewater Treatment by Using Entrapped nZVI into Alginate (Ag) Biopolymer: Adsorption Isotherm, Kinetic Models, and Statistical Analysis

Abstract

Wastewater treatment by nanotechnology, specifically magnetic nanosorbent as nanoZero Valent Iron (nZVI), is a new technology for degradation of wide ranges of organic pollutants by the effect of free electrons as Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) and adsorption processes. Due to their effectiveness, economic, and safety properties, this study prepared and characterized nZVI to be entrapped into natural alginate biopolymer (Ag/nZVI). The removal of wastewater chemical pollutants was tested by studying the variations of COD levels. The effect of operating conditions was studied at different pH, Ag/nZVI doses (g/L), contact time (min), stirring rate (rpm), and initial COD concentrations. Also, Adsorption isotherm, kinetic studies were conducted to estimate equilibrated reaction mechanisms. Linear regression analysis was tested to find the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) relations between variables and removal percentages. Nonlinear Feed-Forward backpropagation system was built for Artificial intelligence neural networks (ANNs) importance detections. Finally, this study approved effective COD removal percentages reached 76%. The maximum removal efficiency for initial COD concentration 400 mg/L was observed at pH 6, using wet dose 3g/L, 30min, and 150 rpm.