Magnetic biochar catalysts from anaerobic digested sludge: production, application and environment impact

Abstract

Regulated disposal or re-utilization of dewatered sludge is of economic benefits and can avoid secondary contamination to the environment; however, feasible and effective management strategies are still lacking. In this study, a peroxydisulfate/zero-valent iron (PDS-ZVI) system is proposed to destroy proteins in soluble extracellular polymeric substances (S-EPS) and loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) in anaerobic digested sludge (ADS) to improve the dewaterability. Moreover, ADS derived biochars supported via iron oxides (Fe-ADSBC) were generated by dewatering and thermal annealing. Intriguingly, the iron species was discovered to gradually transform from Fe₃O₄ to FeO with increased pyrolysis temperatures from 600 to 1000 °C. The manipulated iron species on the biochar can remarkably impact the catalytic activity in PDS activation and degradation of sulfamethazine (SMT). The in situ radical scavenging and capturing tests revealed that the principal reactive oxygen species (ROS) in Fe-ADSBC/PDS system experienced a variation from •OH into SO₄.⁻ at higher annealing temperature (1000 °C). In addition, the carbonaceous ADSBC can promote the catalytic activity of iron oxides by synergistically facilitating the adsorption of reactants and charge transfer through C–O–Fe bonds at the interfaces. This study enables the first insights into the properties and catalytic performance of Fe-ADSBC, meanwhile unveils the mechanism, reaction pathways, and environmental impacts of the ultimate transformation products (TPs) from SMT degradation in the Fe-ADSBC/PDS system. The study also contributes to developing value-added green biochar catalysts from bio-wastes towards environmental purification.