Removal Efficiency and Performance Optimization of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater Using New Biochar Composites

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I recommended the acceptance of this article for publication after addressing the following issues.

1.      Please check the XRD patterns of the samples, which look weird. The recollection of XRD patterns is necessary.

2.      The SEM and TEM images of the samples should be measured to analyze the microstructure.

3.      The advance of wastewater treatment technologies should be further introduced. e.g.: Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2022, 43, 2652–2664; Chem. Eng. J., 452 (2023) 139417; Separation and Purification Technology, 2023, 304, 122401;

4.      The BET surfaces areas of the samples should be measured.

 

5.      The removal performance of the sample should be compared with other reported ones to highlight the novelty of yours.

 

Author Response

I recommended the acceptance of this article for publication after addressing the following issues.

Reply: Thank you for your comments on our paper.

1.Please check the XRD patterns of the samples, which look weird. The recollection of XRD patterns is necessary.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out the problem in the article. We have revised the XRD diagram, as shown in the new Figure 2. We have adjusted the type of Figure 2 and modified the abscissa unit. The abscissa is expressed as “2θ/degrees”.

2.The SEM and TEM images of the samples should be measured to analyze the microstructure.

Reply: Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have added SEM and TEM images of the samples to the results, and analyzed their microstructures. The contents are shown in Section 2, and the results of SEM and TEM are shown in Figure 3. It can be seen from the SEM that the biochar composite presents an irregular block shape, and the pore structure formed is conducive to the adsorption process.

3.The advance of wastewater treatment technologies should be further introduced. e.g.: Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2022, 43, 2652–2664; Chem. Eng. J., 452 (2023) 139417; Separation and Purification Technology, 2023, 304, 122401;

Reply: Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. In the last part of the introduction section, we added an introduction to the progress of wastewater treatment technology. As suggested, we cited the latest research progress of Chinese Journal of Catalyst, Chemical Engineering Journal and Separation and Purification Technology.

4.The BET surfaces areas of the samples should be measured.

Reply: Thank you for your suggestion. In the fourth part, we added BET surface area analysis of samples, as shown in "2.1 Specific surface area analysis of biochar composites", and the results are shown in Table 1. Compared with BC and ZVI, BC/ZVI composites have larger specific surface area. Compared with other methods, this experimental method has larger specific surface area and more obvious effect.

5.The removal performance of the sample should be compared with other reported ones to highlight the novelty of yours.

Reply: Thank you very much for pointing out the problem. In the results section, we added "2.7 Comparison of Cu (II) adsorption capacity of biochar composites", and compared the research method with other methods on Cu (II) adsorption capacity, as shown in Table 2. We compared the BET surface area of the biochar composite obtained by this method with that obtained by other methods, as shown in Table 1. Compared with BC and ZVI, BC/ZVI composites have larger specific surface area. Compared with other methods, the specific surface area of this experimental method is larger. The method proposed in this study has better adsorption capacity for Cu (II) than other methods, with higher adsorption capacity.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper investigated the potential of a new biochar composite to remove Tetracycline from wastewater. Despite the importance of the topic of developing new efficient adsorbent material to remove emerging organic pollutants from wastewater (to enhance the recycling of the treated wastewater), however, the paper was not well written in term of language quality and structure.

Authors should revise the English throughout the paper.

Sections 2.1 and 2.2 should be shortened and included in the introduction.

Authors have prepared the composite at high temperature. The energetic aspects should also be taken into consideration to make the process more sustainable.

Section 3.1 the title does not reflect the content of this section.

Authors could also integrate kinetics and isotherm models to better describe the adsorption process involved.

Author Response

This paper investigated the potential of a new biochar composite to remove Tetracycline from wastewater. Despite the importance of the topic of developing new efficient adsorbent material to remove emerging organic pollutants from wastewater (to enhance the recycling of the treated wastewater), however, the paper was not well written in term of language quality and structure.

1.Authors should revise the English throughout the paper.

Reply: Thank you very much for pointing out the problem. We have checked the English expression of the whole article and revised the inappropriate expression.

2.Sections 2.1 and 2.2 should be shortened and included in the introduction.

Reply: Thank you for your suggestions. We have reduced Sections 2.1 and 2.2 as recommended. We put the contents of Sections 2.1 and 2.2 in the introduction section. Finally, we refined the language expression of literature review.

3.Authors have prepared the composite at high temperature. The energetic aspects should also be taken into consideration to make the process more sustainable.

Reply: Thank you for your comments and suggestions. In "3.1 Preparation process of biochar", we have supplemented the preparation process and the positive role of biochar prepared at high temperature. For example, the yield of biochar is relatively high and the pore structure is relatively good. Because it is easy to operate and control, it is widely used.

 

4.Section 3.1 the title does not reflect the content of this section.

Thank you for pointing out the problem. We changed the original title to "2.2 Diffraction Results and Morphological Structure of New Biocarbon Composites" to make the title consistent with this section. We have revised the title number of 3.1 to 2.2.

5.Authors could also integrate kinetics and isotherm models to better describe the adsorption process involved.

Reply: Thank you for your comments. We added kinetic and isotherm models in "3. Research theory and method", as shown in "3.3 Adsorption kinetic analysis". The first part is adsorption kinetics, and the second part is adsorption isotherm. In the results section, we added "2.7 Comparison of Cu (II) adsorption capacity of biochar composites ", and analyzed the kinetics and isothermal parameters of the composites.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The revised manuscript can be accepted.

Reviewer 2 Report

Authors have improved the paper according to the comments