AUTHOR=Wang Huabin , Duan Ran , Zhou Xinquan , Wang Jia , Liu Ying , Xu Rui , Liao Zhuwei TITLE=Efficient removal of mercury and chromium from wastewater via biochar fabricated with steel slag: Performance and mechanisms JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2022.961907 DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2022.961907 ISSN=2296-4185 ABSTRACT=

Biochar derived from biomass is regarded as a promising adsorbent for wastewater treatment, but the high cost of modification is still a challenge for its large-scale practical applications. In this study, we employed steel slag as a low-cost fabricant and synthesized hydrothermally carbonized steel slag (HCSS), as a stable environmentally functional material for heavy metal removal. Typically, positively and negatively charged heavy metal contaminants of Hg2+ and Cr2O72− were employed to testify the performance of HCSS as an adsorbent, and good capacities [(283.24 mg/g for Hg (II) and 323.16 mg/g for Cr (VI)] were found. The feasibility of HCSS on real wastewater purification was also evaluated, as the removal efficiency was 94.11% and 88.65% for Hg (II) and Cr (VI), respectively. Mechanism studies revealed that the modification of steel slag on bio-adsorbents offered copious active sites for pollutants. As expected, oxygen-containing functional groups in HCSS acted as the main contributor to adsorption capacity. Moreover, some reactive iron species (i.e., Fe2+) played an essential role in chemical reduction of Cr (VI). The adsorptive reactions were pH-dependent, owing to other more mechanisms, such as coprecipitation, ion-exchange, and electrostatic attraction. This promising recycling approach of biomass waste and the design of agro-industrial byproducts can be highly suggestive of the issues of resource recovery in the application of solid waste-derived environmentally functional materials for heavy metal remediation.