title: Eggshell: A green adsorbent for heavy metal removal in an MBR system.
abstract: Presence of heavy metals as well as different metal ions in treated wastewater is a problem for the environment as well as human health. This paper aims to investigate the possibility to combine an MBR (membrane biological reactor) with an adsorption process onto powdered eggshell and eggshell membrane in order to improve metal removal from wastewater. The first step of the experimental analysis consists of the evaluation of the compatibility between the two processes. Then, a study about sorbent concentration and size effect on fouling was conducted, because the use of this kind of sorbent could affect membrane performance. The second step of the work concerns the check up of eggshell removal capacity as a function of sorbent size, achieved treating an aqueous solution containing Al(3+), Fe(2+) and Zn(2+) as water pollutants. Finally, synthetic wastewater, containing the metal species, was treated by two alternative process schemes: one of them performs the metal uptake in a dedicated adsorption unit, before the MBR. In the second, the two processes take place in the same unit. Results demonstrate that the optimization of the first option could be a solution to MBR upgrading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics and Systems Engineering (D.I.M.E.S.), Laboratory of Transport Phenomena and Biotechnology - University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci , Cubo-39/c, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pettinato
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics and Systems Engineering (D.I.M.E.S.), Laboratory of Transport Phenomena and Biotechnology - University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci , Cubo-39/c, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy. Electronic address: sudip.chakraborty@unical.it.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.affiliation: Institute Center for Water and Environment (i-Water), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: Hassan A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Arafat
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics and Systems Engineering (D.I.M.E.S.), Laboratory of Transport Phenomena and Biotechnology - University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci , Cubo-39/c, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy. Electronic address: vincenza.calabro@unical.it.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Calabro'
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000818:Animals; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors; D004528:Egg Shell / Q000737:chemistry*; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Adsorption; Bioaccumulation; Eggshell; Membrane bio-reactor; Metal removal