Fionah Abelline, Oluk Isaac, Brady Laura, Byrne Diana M, Escobar Isabel C
Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Membranes (Basel). 2024 Jul 11;14(7):153. doi: 10.3390/membranes14070153.
Water contamination resulting from coal spills is one of the largest environmental problems affecting communities in the Appalachia Region of the United States. This coal slurry contains potentially toxic substances, such as hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and coal cleaning chemicals, and its leakage into water bodies (lakes, rivers, and aquifers) can lead to adverse health effects not only for freshwater bodies and plant life but also for humans. This study focused on two major experiments. The first experiment involved the use of biochar to create a biochar-polysulfone (BC-PSf) flat-sheet multifunctional membrane to remove organic contaminants, and the other major experiment compared eco-friendly (gamma-valerolactone-GVL; Rhodiasolv PolarClean-PC) and petroleum-derived solvents (i.e., N-methyl-pyrrolidone-NMP) in the fabrication of the biochar-polysulfone membranes. The resulting membranes were tested for their efficiency in removing both positively and negatively charged organic contaminants from the collected water at varying pH values. A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) with accompanying uncertainty and sensitivity analyses was carried out to understand the global environmental impacts of incorporating biochar, NMP, GVL, and PC in the synthesis of PSf/NMP, BC-PSf/NMP, PSf/GVL, BC-PSf/GVL, PSf/PC, and BC-PSf/PC membranes at a set surface area of 1000 m. The results showed that the addition of biochar to the membrane matrix increased the surface area of the membranes and improved both their adsorptive and mechanical properties. The membranes with biochar incorporated in their matrix showed a higher potential for contaminant removal than those without biochar. The environmental impacts normalized to the BC-PSf/GVL membrane showed that the addition of biochar increased global warming impacts, eutrophication, and respiratory impacts by over 100% in all the membrane configurations with biochar. The environmental impacts were highly sensitive to biochar addition (Spearman's coefficient > 0.8). The BC/PSf membrane with Rhodiasolv PolarClean had the lowest associated global environmental impacts among all the membranes with biochar. Ultimately, this study highlighted potential tradeoffs between functional performance and global environmental impacts regarding choices for membrane fabrication.
煤泄漏造成的水污染是影响美国阿巴拉契亚地区社区的最大环境问题之一。这种煤泥含有潜在的有毒物质，如碳氢化合物、重金属和洗煤化学品，其泄漏到水体（湖泊、河流和含水层）中不仅会对淡水体和植物生命产生不利的健康影响，还会对人类产生影响。本研究聚焦于两项主要实验。第一个实验涉及使用生物炭制备生物炭-聚砜（BC-PSf）平板多功能膜以去除有机污染物，另一项主要实验则在生物炭-聚砜膜的制备过程中比较了环保型溶剂（γ-戊内酯-GVL；罗地亚溶剂 PolarClean-PC）和石油衍生溶剂（即 N-甲基吡咯烷酮-NMP）。对所得膜在不同pH值下从收集的水中去除带正电和带负电有机污染物的效率进行了测试。进行了一项伴随不确定性和敏感性分析的比较生命周期评估（LCA），以了解在1000平方米的设定表面积下，将生物炭、NMP、GVL和PC纳入PSf/NMP、BC-PSf/NMP、PSf/GVL、BC-PSf/GVL、PSf/PC和BC-PSf/PC膜合成过程中的全球环境影响。结果表明，向膜基质中添加生物炭增加了膜的表面积，并改善了其吸附性能和机械性能。基质中含有生物炭的膜比不含生物炭的膜具有更高的去除污染物潜力。以BC-PSf/GVL膜为基准进行归一化处理后的环境影响表明，在所有含有生物炭的膜配置中，添加生物炭使全球变暖影响、富营养化和呼吸影响增加了100%以上。环境影响对生物炭的添加高度敏感（斯皮尔曼系数>0.8）。在所有含有生物炭的膜中，含有罗地亚溶剂 PolarClean的BC/PSf膜具有最低的相关全球环境影响。最终，本研究突出了在膜制备选择方面功能性能与全球环境影响之间的潜在权衡。
