Multifunctional mesostructured adsorbents for agricultural wastewater treatment

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The applicant's research program aims at the development of effective treatment approaches dedicated to the agricultural and agri-food effluents via chemical transformation, adsorption and upgrading. Within this framework, the applicant's second discovery grant focuses on the development of an adsorption technology for the abatement of phosphates, nitrate and ammonium nitrogen, three key pollutants occurring in agricultural liquid effluents. In this regard, nitrogen and phosphorus are particularly important pollutants as both are implicated in aquatic eutrophication. Furthermore, the presence of nitrite and nitrate ions in drinking water is a potential public health hazard, while the presence of ammonium nitrogen in natural waters will result in acute toxicity to fish and other forms of aquatic life even at concentrations as low as 0.2 mg/L. The applicant intends to pursue the development of a technological approach allowing for a combined removal and recovery of nitrate and phosphates from agricultural liquid effluents and to extend this approach to ammonium cations as well.