Electrospun Nanofibres and Porous Beads from Sustainable Modified Biomaterials: a Promising Solution for Removal of Emerging Contaminants in Wastewater

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CONTEXT AND RATIONALE - The treatment of polluted water is becoming an increasingly relevant challenge for Canada's water resources sustainability. Emerging contaminants (ECs) enter the waste stream after disposal and human excretion and are not removed efficiently by conventional wastewater treatments, threatening the human health and aquatic organisms. Similar limitations are observed of by-products (PBs) caused by advanced treatments (e.g. ozonation). Consequently, an efficient technology for environmental remediation of the pollutants is currently a critical need. Energy efficiency of this most needed technology and its low environmental fingerprint is of equally high importance. As solution to the outlined problems, the goal of this research program is to develop low cost "green" adsorbent biomaterials using nanofibres and porous beads that offer large specific surface area and versatility in the choice of retention sought, depending on the ECs to be removed. These innovative biosorbents, manufactured at large-scale, used and recycled for water treatment, will revolutionizing the environmental impact of wastewater treatment. OBJECTIVES - The long-term objective of this research program is focused on the adsorption potential of the developed materials for targeted ECs and BPs in different environmental matrices (e.g. surface water, urban effluent). Afterwards, several milestones will have to be achieved, including the design, optimization, and finally the evaluation of new prototypes suitable for a possible expansion to an industrial scale. In order to address the immediate needs, we will investigate two different routes leading respectively to the synthesis of novel electrospun nanofibres and porous beads from modified biomaterials for water purification purposes. Hence, the development and optimization of an innovative treatment technology based on synthetized, tailor-made biomaterials is undertaken to remove or reduce significantly some selected ECs from aqueous matrices. The following short-term objectives that we want to achieve to ensure the fundamental aspect of the research program are: Objective 1:Develop and characterize new nanofibres by electrospinning process. Objective 2:Develop and characterize new porous beads synthetized by electrostatic extrusion process. Objective 3:Characterize ECs by-products (BPs) after ozone treatment and evaluate sorption of BPs on new adsorbents.