Designing adsorbents and catalysts for wastewater treatment

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Designing adsorbents and catalysts for wastewater treatment

Amane Jada
Contact : amane.jada@uha.fr

Wastewater treatment conventional methods, such as adsorption, flocculation, membrane filtration and biodegradation, are unfortunately not always very selective and their non-destructive nature leads to the formation of sludge. We are currently working on Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP), which produce highly Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) leading to efficient removal of organic pollutant from water. Our research activities at IS2M (Mulhouse-France) and also abroad, at Ibn Zohr University (Agadir-Morocco), aim to develop new AOP catalysts based on polymers, bio-sourced materials, inorganic particles or composites, which may be encapsulated in calcium alginate beads. Encapsulation allows the catalyst to be recovered and recycled, as well as, to preserve and maintain its interesting properties for a long time. These AOP catalysts have proven effective in removing and degrading organic pollutants present in aquatic systems such as dyes and pharmaceutical products, either with the help of the sun irradiation, or without any external light energy input, and they can be recycled without altering their structures. The results obtained are promising for large-scale application. In addition to the experimental identification of the ROS, our research also aims to elucidate the radical and the singlet oxygen 1O2-based non-radical mechanisms describing the peroxide activation.