A product for adsorbing one or more heavy metals from a liquid is disclosed. The product may comprise attapulgite that has been surface functionalized with a surface coating agent that includes one or more mercury affinity functional groups that chemically bond to the attapulgite surface, wherein the weight percentage of components of the product includes: 91-99 wt. % attapulgite and 1-9 wt. % surface coating agent that includes the one or more mercury affinity functional groups. The product has a surface area in the range of 115-145 m.sup.2/g as measured using the BET method. The heavy metal includes mercury and/or lead. Also disclosed is a method of producing the product and a method of adsorbing at least one heavy metal in a liquid using the product.

A method of fabricating a magnetically-controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor includes: (a) mixing FeCl.sub.3 crystal powder with deionized water to obtain a FeCl.sub.3 solution; (b) completely immersing a carbon-based microsphere in the FeCl.sub.3 solution; transferring the carbon-based microsphere from the FeCl.sub.3 solution followed by heating to allow crystallization of FeCl.sub.3 on the surface of the carbon-based microsphere to obtain a FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere; (c) heating the FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere in a vacuum chamber until there is no moisture in the vacuum chamber; continuously removing gas in the vacuum chamber and introducing oxygen; and treating the FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere with a laser in an oxygen-enriched environment to obtain the magnetically controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor. A magnetically-controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor is further provided.

A method for membrane filtration of water comprising alternating in-line additions of coagulant and adsorbent to the water upstream of the membrane, wherein each addition time is in a range from 10 seconds to one hour.

The present disclosure provides a recirculating aquaculture system comprising a) a wastewater treatment system and b) a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production system. In particular, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) can be utilized as the PHA in such a system. Methods of treating wastewater for reuse by contacting the wastewater with one or more zeolites to remove material from the wastewater and reusing the treated wastewater are also provided as well as methods of producing a PHA such as PHB from organic waste. Moreover, food compositions comprising a PHA biomass as well as associated methods are also provided.

An adsorbent for wastewater treatment includes titanium hexametaphosphate; the titanium hexametaphosphate is mainly prepared from hexametaphosphate and titanium salt. The adsorbent is an aggregate of micron or nanometer particles, with a large surface area and a good adsorption performance. The adsorbent, as a wastewater treatment agent, may effectively remove thallium contaminants in various water bodies such as underground water, surface water, chemical wastewater and mine wastewater at a removal rate of 99.8%; and the adsorbent has a good removal capability for heavy metals in water such as cadmium, plumbum, copper, stibium, cesium and uranium. The adsorbent has a wide applicable PH value range, and especially has a good adsorption capacity, stability and heat resistance under acidic conditions.

Disclosed herein is an electrostatic precipitation method using an electrostatic precipitator including a collection module having a collection electrode and a discharge electrode, a housing having an internal partition wall formed therein, an inlet-side passage switching member, and an outlet-side passage switching member. The electrostatic precipitation method includes collecting dust by applying a voltage to the discharge electrode while gas flows, closing some of the flow spaces, divided by the internal partition wall using the passage switching members, and performing dust collection for one of the opened flow spaces by applying a voltage to the discharge electrode therein, and performing washing for at least one of the closed flow spaces by supplying washing water to the collection electrode therein.

In one aspect, composite particles are described herein. A composite particle comprises a substrate, composite metallic or metal oxide nanoparticles supported by the substrate and an amphiphilic or hydrophilic component associated with the substrate, wherein the composite metallic or metal oxide nanoparticles comprise iron and at least one additional transition metal.

A method of extracting lithium from a lithium-containing solution according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: obtaining a lithium chloride solution from the lithium-containing solution; and crystallizing and removing sodium chloride in the obtained lithium chloride solution.

The present invention covers a novel method for creating an adsorbent and the resulting novel adsorbent. The method may be used to remove pollutants/unwanted chemicals from water, air, other gases, biological fluids (such as blood, urine, lipids, protein fluids), and other fluids (such as fuel). The adsorbent may be used to remove heavy metals (for example, lead), organic pollutants, inorganic non-meal pollutants (for example, nitrates and bromates). Accordingly, the current invention has many applications including but not limited to water treatment, wastewater treatment, biomedical fluid treatments, gas cleanup, and fuel (oil, gas) cleanup.

A wastewater management system includes a series of water treatment modules to treat wastewater and produce reusable and/or potable water and other beneficial byproducts of the wastewater treatment process. A pretreatment module, a filtration module, an evaporator module, an odor control module, a UV-light module, an autoclave module, a sonolysis module, an ozone module and a chlorination module are combined in multiple combinations along with holding tanks, condensers, flash tanks and other components to address water purification and reclamation needs based upon specific wastewater conditions. The system captures condensate from AC systems and rainwater from rainwater gutter systems processes the water to produce reusable and/or potable water with or without re-mineralization. Any CO.sub.2 produced by the water treatment system is captured and processed using naturally-occurring flora. The wastewater treatment system includes multiple closed-loop subsystems to minimize energy usage and maximize water purification and reclamation for reuse.