Nanomodified clays, bioclays and bio-leaching for water and sediments remediation

NATALIA PORZIONATO; LUCAS GUZ; MELISA OLIVELLI; GUSTAVO CURUTCHET; ROBERTO CANDAL

Bio-Nanotechnology for sustainable environmental remediation and energy production

COLCIENCIAS

Lugar: Bogotá; Año: 2016; p. 103 - 133

Water contamination is one of the main concerns in the entire worldbut in particular in undeveloped countries, were environmentalcontrol and regulations are lighter than in developed countries, orit application is more difficult due to social or economic constrains[1]. Surface water contamination is mainly consequence of therelease of untreated Municipal or industrial effluents to watercourses. Municipal effluents, in the cases where industrial effluentsare separated from sewage waters, can be relatively easy treated byconventional biological methods. The main problem with sewagewaters, beside the enormous volume of water to be treated in bigcities, is the presence of the so called emergent contaminants. Thisgroup of contaminants include medicines, hormones, and othersubstances eliminated by human been that cannot be degraded inconventional biological plants. Industrial waste water representsa more complicated problem because some contaminants canbe recalcitrant or even toxic to microorganisms. Consequently,conventional bio-treatment may be not enough to eliminate thesepollutants. In these cases, different physicochemical methods aretypically used which include coagulation/precipitation; oxidation,neutralization, etc. Physicochemical methods can be used aloneor coupled with bio treatment and/or adsorption. In the case ofcoagulation/flocculation and adsorption, the production of solidwaste containing concentrated amounts of contaminants can be aproblem difficult to solve.