Applications of zerovalent iron (ZVI) for water treatment under aerobic conditions include sequestration of metals (e.g., in acid mine drainage) and decolorization of dyes (in wastewaters from textile manufacturing). The processes responsible for contaminant removal can be a complex mixture of reduction, oxidation, sorption, and coprecipitation processes, which are further complicated by the dynamics of oxygen intrusion, mixing, and oxide precipitation. To better understand such systems, the removal of an azo dye (Orange I) by micron-sized granular ZVI at neutral pH was studied in open (aerobic) stirred batch reactors, by measuring the kinetics of Orange I decolorization and changes in "geochemical" properties (DO, Fe(II), and Eh), with and without two treatments that might improve the long-term performance of this system: sulfidation by pretreatment with sulfide and magnetization by application of a weak magnetic field (WMF). The results show that the changes in solution chemistry are coupled to the dynamics of oxygen intrusion, which was modeled as analogous to dissolved oxygen sag curves. Both sulfidation and magnetization increased Orange I removal rates 2.4-71.8-fold, but there was little synergistic benefit to applying both enhancements together. Respike experiments showed that the enhancement from magnetization carries over from magnetization to sulfidation, but not the reverse.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.