Lampiran 5A paper Removal of nitrate, ammonia and phosphate from aqueous solutions in packed bed filterusing biochar augmented sand media

Nutrients from wastewater are a major source of pollution because they can cause significant impact on the ecosystem. Accordingly, it is important that the nutrient concentrations are kept to admissible levels to the receiving environment. Often regulatory limits are set on the maximum allowable concentrations in the effluent. Therefore, wastewater must be treated to meet safe levels of discharge. In this study, laboratory investigation of the efficiency of packed bed filters to remove nitrate, ammonium and phosphate from aqueous solutions were conducted. Sand and sand augmented with hydrochloric acid treated biochar (SBC) were used as packing media. Synthetic wastewater solution was prepared with PO43-, NO3-, NH4+ concentrations 20, 10, 50 mg/L, respectively. Each experiment ran for a period of five days; samples from the effluent were collected on alternate days. All experiments were duplicated. Over the experiment period, the average removal efficiency of PO43-, NO3-, NH4+ were 99.2%, 72.9%, 96.7% in the sand packed columns and 99.2%, 82.3%, 97.4% in the SBC packed columns, respectively. Although, the presence of biochar in the packing media had little effect on phosphate and ammonium removal, it significantly improved nitrate removal

Enhanced Fluorescence in a Scattering Medium

Often only small amounts of sample are available for spectroscopic analytical determinations. This work investigates the enhancement of signal in columns packed with silica particles. We propose that silica particles cause the light to scatter through the column, effectively increasing optical path length. Packed columns are shown to be effective with fluorescence spectroscopy, but results were inconclusive with absorbance spectroscopy.

Effect of pore diameter on the elution behavior of analytes from thermoresponsive polymer grafted beads packed columns

Temperature-responsive chromatography using thermoresponsive polymers is innovative and can control analyte retention via column temperature. Analyte elution behavior in this type of chromatography depends on the modified thermoresponsive polymer and the structure of the base materials. In the present study, we examine the effect of the pore diameter of silica beads on analyte elution behavior in temperature-responsive chromatography. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-n-butyl methacrylate) hydrogel was applied to beads of various pore sizes: 7, 12, and 30 nm. Almost the same amount of copolymer hydrogel was applied to all beads, indicating that the efficiency of copolymer modification was independent of pore size. Analyte retention on prepared beads in a packed column was observed using steroids, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates as analytes. Analyte retention times increased with temperature on packed columns of 12- and 30-nm beads, whereas the column packed with 7-nm beads exhibited decreased retention times with increasing temperature. The difference in analyte elution behavior among the various pore sizes was attributed to analyte diffusion into the bead pores. These results demonstrate that bead pore diameter determines temperature-dependent elution behavior.