Niaz Faiza, Khan Qasim, Ali Mustafa, Shen Wenxing
College of Forest Resources and Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, P. R. China.
College of Electronic Science and Technology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518000, P. R. China.
ACS Omega. 2020 Mar 3;5(10):4900-4906. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b03722. eCollection 2020 Mar 17.
Forest is one of nature's most generous gifts to human beings, providing materials and shelters for all living beings with over 30% global land coverage. Apart from being sustainable, biodegradable, and renewable, wood is also extremely fascinating from the application aspect, with numerous advantages including hierarchical and macroporous structure, excellent mechanical performance, and versatile chemistry. The macroporous structure of wood is comprised of numerous long, partially aligned channels along the growth direction. This structure is suitable for a range of emerging applications, especially as a separation/membrane material. In this research, the potentiality of Gingko biloba (Gb) wood in the remediation of wastewater, contaminated with methylene blue (MB), a dye found in the industrial waters, was investigated. We report a macroporous, three-dimensional (3D) Gb-wood membrane decorated with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) for efficient wastewater treatment. The efficiency of the Pd NPs/Gb-wood membrane to remove MB from a flowing aqueous solution was demonstrated. The wastewater treatment rate of the 3D Pd NPs/Gb-wood membrane can reach 0.5 L/min, with a high MB removal efficiency (>99.9%). The 3D Gb-wood macroporous membrane with partially aligned channels exhibits promising results for water treatment and is applicable for an even wider range of separation applications. In addition, the benefit of this 3D-wood membrane system for wastewater treatment was evaluated against the potential impacts on the environment and human health by employing the life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The LCA was carried out using the Gabi-education version with the gate-to-grave approach, including industrial wastewater, 3D-wood membrane, and electricity consumption using CML (Centrum VoorMilieukunde Leiden). From the LCA, it can be observed that wastewater filtration using this membrane exhibited a better environmental footprint due to the improved performance of the membrane in treating a higher volume of the permeate. Therefore, this filtration system had outweighed the additional environmental impact of the wastewater treatment process. The energy demand was identified as the main environmental hotspot in the LCA analysis. The analysis revealed that the energy source for electricity generation had a significant influence on the overall sustainability of this system. Additionally, the wood itself, a naturally abundant and eco-friendly material, presented zero environmental hazard to the environment during the filtration process. The experimental and environmental impact results indicate that Gb-wood can be employed as a natural and eco-friendly adsorbent material for the removal of waste from aqueous solutions.
森林是大自然赐予人类最慷慨的礼物之一，它覆盖了全球超过30%的陆地，为所有生物提供了材料和庇护所。木材除了具有可持续性、可生物降解和可再生性外，从应用角度来看也极具吸引力，具有许多优点，包括分层和大孔结构、优异的机械性能以及多样的化学性质。木材的大孔结构由许多沿生长方向排列的长且部分对齐的通道组成。这种结构适用于一系列新兴应用，特别是作为分离/膜材料。在本研究中，研究了银杏（Gb）木材在处理受亚甲基蓝（MB）污染的废水方面的潜力，亚甲基蓝是工业废水中发现的一种染料。我们报道了一种用钯纳米颗粒（Pd NPs）修饰的大孔三维（3D）Gb木材膜用于高效废水处理。证明了Pd NPs/Gb木材膜从流动水溶液中去除MB的效率。3D Pd NPs/Gb木材膜的废水处理速率可达0.5 L/min，对MB的去除效率很高（>99.9%）。具有部分对齐通道的3D Gb木材大孔膜在水处理方面显示出有前景的结果，并且适用于更广泛的分离应用。此外，通过采用生命周期评估（LCA）方法，评估了这种3D木材膜系统在废水处理方面的益处以及对环境和人类健康的潜在影响。LCA使用Gabi教育版采用从摇篮到坟墓的方法进行，包括工业废水、3D木材膜以及使用CML（莱顿环境科学中心）的电力消耗。从LCA可以看出，由于该膜在处理更高体积渗透物方面性能的提高，使用该膜进行废水过滤表现出更好的环境足迹。因此，这种过滤系统超过了废水处理过程的额外环境影响。在LCA分析中，能源需求被确定为主要的环境热点。分析表明，发电的能源来源对该系统的整体可持续性有重大影响。此外，木材本身是一种天然丰富且环保的材料，在过滤过程中对环境没有环境危害。实验和环境影响结果表明，Gb木材可作为一种天然且环保的吸附材料用于从水溶液中去除废物。
