Synthesis of Iron Oxide/TiO2 with Citric Acid Nano-Composite to Remove Some Inorganic Pollutants from Kema Drain -Aswan-Egypt

Abstract

Kema drain was constructed in the past at Aswan Governorate 60 years ago in south east-north direction of Aswan city as a reservoir for the floods in order so as a protect for Aswan city from the dangers of floods, where the flood water flows into Kema drain and from it to the Nile River directly. But it was exploited by the Kema Fertilizer Factory in Aswan, which it is the largest chemical fertilizer plant in the Middle East, by dumping its industrial wastes in the drain, which is discharged in turn directly in the Nile River (Fig.1). Also, the Sewage Authority in Aswan city participates in this problem by throwing sewage of Aswan city in the Nile water, which is about 12,0000m 3 of wastewater. As well as, the Kema drain was used by some offenders as a drain to get rid of sewage, where some people connect the drainage pipes to pour into the drain. This causes a foul smell hurt everyone who passes through this area. It is an environmental and health tragedy for the people of Aswan. Thus, over 60 years, there is still a source of disturbance and pollution of one of the most important tourist governorates (Aswan Governorate). By analyzing the Kema drain wastewater and some Nile River water samples that were taken after the outlet of Kema drain, it is advised that they contaminated by some inorganic pollutants (Table 1). Where, toxic heavy metals of water sources have become one of the main problems worldwide (Madaln and Suzuki, 2002). So, it must find a solution to this problem by treating the wastewater of the Kema drain before throwing it in the Nile River in a number of ways, including those used in this paper. The removal of heavy metals, such as copper and iron has a great attention because of their harmful effects on the ecosystem and human health. Removal of heavy metals can be eliminated by different treatment methods. (Pokhrel and Viraraghavan, 2008 & Vaclavikova et al., 2008). Adsorption processes are commonly applied and show a good efficiency to cost ratio for removing toxic metals. Sorption methods are the best method with less technical cost and removal efficiency percent. (Vaclavikova et al., 2008). Recently, magnetic materials have a high interest for removal of heavy metals. Generally, MINPs particle size has a main effect on removal toxic metals. (Yavuz et al., 2006 and Deliyanni et al., 2010). Improve performance of nanoparticles to sorbent materials depends on nanoporous structures. (Fryxell et al., 2004). Large surface area of nanomaterials has very advantageous for removal of toxic metals from polluted water (O'Handley, 2000). The morphological character of MINPs is crystalline and can be synthesized by chemical methods; a challenging task is nano range of particle size and morphology. Chemical precipitation, sol-gel, hydrothermal, emulsion-precipitation, electro-deposition, and microwave assisted hydrothermal technique. The solgel method is considered as a best method for preparing nanosized materials. (Mary Jacintha et al., 2017). A numerous phases of iron oxides, i.e., oxides, hydroxides or...