Water Self-Purification with Zero External Consumption by Livestock Manure Resource Utilization

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Sustainable Technology

Background:

• Improper waste biomass disposal and emerging contaminants (ECs) pose significant global environmental threats.
• Wastewater treatment often requires external energy and oxidants, increasing costs and complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a sustainable strategy for transforming livestock manure (LM) into an effective catalyst for water self-purification.
• To achieve rapid degradation of ECs with zero external consumption (energy or oxidants).

Main Methods:

• Creative resource transformation of livestock manure (LM) into an innovative catalyst (Fe-CCM).
• Utilizing the Fe-CCM catalyst in a self-purification system for water treatment at ambient conditions.
• Investigating the degradation of ECs through H2O and dissolved oxygen (DO) activation.

Main Results:

• The Fe-CCM catalyst enabled rapid degradation of ECs at ambient temperature and pressure without external inputs.
• The self-purification system demonstrated robustness across various salinity levels, improving the second-order kinetic constant sevenfold.
• The mechanism involves enhanced electron exchange facilitated by intermolecular forces between anions and pollutants.

Conclusions:

• This work presents a novel, zero-external-consumption approach for EC removal from complex water systems.
• The study advances the resource utilization of livestock waste, offering a sustainable solution for environmental remediation.
• The developed Fe-CCM catalyst shows significant potential for practical applications in wastewater treatment.