A method and apparatus break down organic materials, typically contaminants, through oxidation. The method for the treatment of a volume of material, provides: a) introducing at least two electrodes into a location, the location containing the volume of material and the volume of material containing one or more species for treatment; b) providing connections between a voltage source and the at least two electrodes; c) applying a voltage of a first polarity to the connections for a first period of time, under the control of a voltage controller; d) applying a voltage of a second, reversed, polarity to the connections for a second period of time, under the control of the voltage controller; e) repeating steps c) and d) a plurality of times; preferably with steps c), d) and e) promoting oxidation of one or more of the one or more species for treatment.

A Fenton-like catalyst material with an electron-poor Cu center and a preparation method and use thereof are provided. The preparation method includes: step 1: dissolving bismuth nitrate pentahydrate in a nitric acid solution and diluting a resulting solution with deionized water to obtain a solution A; step 2: adding citric acid to the solution A and adjusting a pH of a resulting solution with ammonia water to obtain a solution B; step 3: dissolving aluminium isopropoxide (AIP), copper chloride dihydrate, and glucose in the solution B to obtain a suspension C; step 4: stirring the suspension C at a high temperature to allow evaporation until a solid D is completely precipitated; and step 5: subjecting the solid D to calcination in a muffle furnace to obtain the Fenton-like catalyst material. Under neutral conditions, the catalyst material exhibits a prominent removal effect for various toxic organic pollutants, especially for phenolic pollutants.

Metal carbon and oxide nanocomposites prepared by a simple, low energy demanding, and high yield method are provided. The metal carbon nanocomposites can be prepared with or without a support such as silica, graphite, silicates, and zeolites. Both metal carbon and metal oxides nanocomposites are more efficient in catalytic reduction and oxidation of p-nitrophenol and azo dyes than other reported materials. They have high rate constants, number of catalytic cycles and catalytic turn over number (TON) compared to currently used materials.

Provided herein are multilayered, multidimensional upconversion nanomaterial compositions and methods. In certain aspects and embodiments, the compositions and methods are useful in the photolytic degradation of a phenolic pollutant (e.g., phenol).

A permeable reactive barrier having two or more layers of a geotextile fabric inoculated with a bioremediation microbe is provided. The permeable reactive barrier further includes two or more layers of coarse-grained geological material separating the two or more layers of geotextile fabric such that any pair of adjacent layers of geotextile fabric is separated by a layer of coarse-grained geological material. The permeable reactive barrier includes a perforated metal casing surrounding and containing the layers of coarse-grained geological materials and geotextile fabric.

A nano zero valent iron biological coupling device for organic wastewater includes a continuous flow stirred reactor, a flocculation sedimentation device and a membrane bioreactor arranged in series. A nano zero valent iron feeding device is arranged in the continuous flow stirred reactor, a flocculant and a coagulant aid are arranged in the flocculation sedimentation device, and a microbial reaction liquid is arranged in the membrane bioreactor. A nano iron biological coupling process includes: S1, placing the organic wastewater in the continuous flow stirred reactor, adding the nano zero valent iron, stirring and mixing; S2, placing the organic wastewater treated after S1 in the flocculation sedimentation device; S3, placing the organic wastewater treated after S2 in the membrane bioreactor and interacting with the microbial reaction liquid; S4, performing a membrane separation on the organic wastewater treated after S3 in the membrane bioreactor to obtain purified organic wastewater.

In some embodiments, a method may include reducing the microbial load in contaminated water of water recycle loops. These water recycling loops may include pulp and paper mills, cooling towers and water loops, evaporation ponds, feedstock processing systems and/or non-potable water systems. The methods may include providing a peracetate oxidant solution. The peracetate solution may include peracetate anions and a peracid. In some embodiments, the peracetate solution may include a pH from about pH 10 to about pH 12. In some embodiments, the peracetate solution has a molar ratio of peracetate anions to peracid ranging from about 60:1 to about 6000:1. In some embodiments, the peracetate solution has a molar ratio of peracetate to hydrogen peroxide of greater than about 16:1. The peracetate solution may provide bleaching, sanitizing and/or disinfection of contaminated water and surfaces. The peracetate oxidant solution may provide enhanced separation of microbes from contaminated water.

The present invention relates to a method for reducing the content of at least one pollutant selected from the group consisting of nitrobenzene, formate, phenol, 4,4′-Methylenedianilinc (MDA) and aniline of hypersaline wastewater, said method comprising the steps of (a) providing a composition A comprising hypersaline wastewater and said at least one pollutant, and (b) contacting composition A with Haloferax mediterranei cells, thereby generating a composition B comprising said composition A and cells of said at least one halophilic microbial strain. The present invention further concerns a method for the production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide. Further encompassed by the present invention is a composition comprising hypersaline wastewater, said at least one pollutant, and Haloferax mediterranei cells.

In an embodiment a method for treatment wastewater includes exposing the wastewater to an alternating electromagnetic field in order to remove a content substance from the wastewater and selecting a resonance frequency or a frequency in proximity to the resonance frequency for splitting up and for flocculating the content substance or pails of the content substance.

Aspects described herein relate generally to adsorbent systems and methods for capturing and/or separating organic species (e.g., uncharged organic species) from mixtures with water.