Coupling ultrafiltration and adsorption with modified activated carbon for the treatment of nonylphenol ethoxylate-contaminated laundry wastewater.

Khajvand, Mahdieh ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6064-183X; Drogui, Patrick; Kumar, Sushil; Arab, Hamed; Tyagi, Rajeshwar Dayal et Brien, Emmanuel (2026). Coupling ultrafiltration and adsorption with modified activated carbon for the treatment of nonylphenol ethoxylate-contaminated laundry wastewater. Adsorption , vol. 32 , nº 1. DOI: 10.1007/s10450-025-00666-9.

Ce document n'est pas hébergé sur EspaceINRS.

Résumé

Managing wastewater in industrial laundries poses a significant challenge, particularly in the removal of emerging contaminants such as phenolic compounds. The performance of a two-stage process combining ultrafiltration followed by adsorption using modified activated carbon was studied for the removal of nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPEO_3-17) from real laundry wastewater. The use of ultrafiltration as a pretreatment allowed removing solids and colloids before adsorption. Ultrafiltration led to a reduction in total suspended solids from 14.0 ± 2.1 to 3.0 ± 1.3 mg.L⁻¹ and turbidity from 110 ± 1.4 to 1.8 ± 0.9 NTU. Additionally, NPEO_3-17 concentration decreased from 1095 ± 50 µg.L⁻¹ to 534 ± 78 µg.L⁻¹, whereas the chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration passed from 585 ± 14 mg.L⁻¹ to 281 ± 9 mg.L⁻¹ in the permeate. The ultrafiltration permeate was subsequently treated by dynamic adsorption. The adsorption process was designed and optimized considering parameters such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), initial feed temperature, and column height-to-diameter (H/D) ratio. HRT was found to be the most important parameter contributing significantly to NPEO_3-17 and COD removal. Under the optimal conditions (HRT of 9.6 min, a temperature of 20 °C, and an H/D ratio of 6.9) using Box-Behnken Design methodology, 99% and 82% of NPEO_3-17 and COD were removed, respectively. The breakthrough behavior of the adsorption column was further analyzed using six classical models including Bohart–Adams, Yoon–Nelson, Thomas, Wolborska, Yan, and Clark, to interpret the dynamic adsorption kinetics and predict column performance. The Bohart-Adams and Wolborska models described very well the adsorption process for NPEO_3-17. Results demonstrated that the modified activated carbon maintained NPEO_3-17 levels below the reuse threshold (< 200 µg.L⁻¹) for water reuse, even after treating nearly 100 L of ultrafiltered water, confirming the efficiency and long-term stability of the hybrid ultrafiltration–adsorption system.

Type de document:	Article
Mots-clés libres:	continuous adsorption; experimental design; laundry wastewater; nonylphenol ethoxylates; reuse
Centre:	Centre Eau Terre Environnement
Date de dépôt:	03 mars 2026 19:13
Dernière modification:	03 mars 2026 19:13
URI:	https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/16764

Gestion Actions (Identification requise)

Modifier la notice