Recent Development of Heterogeneous Catalysts for Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2025 | Viewed by 442

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, China
Interests: anaerobic digestion; biofuel; methane production; biomass; delignification; ethanol production; CO2 adsorption

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Guest Editor
School of Energy & Environment, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China
Interests: microalgae cultivation; anaerobic digestion; lipid; livestock wastewater; biogas slurry; nutrient bio-recover, life cycle assessment (LCA)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the development of society, there has been an increase in the output of wastewater.

Wastewater treatment has become a problem of worldwide concern. Due to the complicated components contained in the wastewater,  such as microplastics, heavy metals, organic matter, ammonia nitrogen, sulfate and other pollutants, the treatment of wastewater is facing huge challenges. Heterogeneous catalysts are widely used in wastewater treatment, which can effectively remove kinds of pollutants in wastewater and improve the treatment efficiency. The scope encompasses various aspects, including the preparation, characterization, deactivation, regeneration, and application potential of catalysts for wastewater treatment.This special issue provides a platform for authors and readers to share their research findings, exchange ideas, and contribute to the advancement of this field, ultimately driving the development of wastewater treatment.

Dr. Qunpeng Cheng
Dr. Cuixia Liu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • wastewater
  • catalyst
  • bioenergy
  • pollutant
  • treatment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 6811 KiB  
Article
Application of Fe2O3 Catalytic Sludge Ceramics in the Control of Eutrophication in Water Bodies
by Xiangyu Song, Gang Meng, Jiacheng Cui, Haoyan Yuan, Siyi Luo and Zongliang Zuo
Catalysts 2025, 15(6), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal15060540 - 29 May 2025
Viewed by 245
Abstract
The excessive input of nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants into surface water bodies poses a serious threat to the aquatic ecosystem. As an efficient porous adsorbent material, ceramsite shows remarkable potential in the field of simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal. In this study, Fe [...] Read more.
The excessive input of nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants into surface water bodies poses a serious threat to the aquatic ecosystem. As an efficient porous adsorbent material, ceramsite shows remarkable potential in the field of simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal. In this study, Fe2O3 catalyzed the decomposition of K2CO3 to generate CO and CO2 gases, leading to the formation of a large number of pore structures in the composite ceramsite. Subsequently, adsorption experiments were conducted on the obtained ceramsite. The regulatory mechanisms of the ceramsite dosage and solution pH on its adsorption performance were revealed. The experiments show that as the ceramsite dosage increased from 2.1 g/L to 9.6 g/L, the adsorption capacities of ammonia–nitrogen and phosphorus decreased from 0.4521 mg/g and 0.4280 mg/g to 0.1430 mg/g and 0.1819 mg/g, respectively, while the removal rates increased to 68.66% and 58.22%, respectively. This indicates that the competition between the utilization efficiency of adsorption sites and the mass-transfer limitation between particles dominates this process. An analysis of the pH effect reveals that the adsorption of ammonia–nitrogen reached a peak at pH = 10 (adsorption capacity of 0.4429 mg/g and removal rate of 81.58%), while the optimal adsorption of phosphorus occurred at pH = 7 (adsorption capacity of 0.3446 mg/g and removal rate of 86.40%). This phenomenon is closely related to the interaction between the existing forms of pollutants and the surface charge. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies show that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 > 0.99) and the Langmuir isothermal model can accurately describe the adsorption behavior of the ceramsite for ammonia–nitrogen and phosphorus, confirming that the adsorption is dominated by a monolayer chemical adsorption mechanism. This study explores the dosage–efficiency relationship and pH response mechanism of Fe2O3-catalyzed porous ceramsite for nitrogen and phosphorus adsorption, revealing the interface reaction pathway dominated by Fe2O3 catalysis and chemical adsorption. It provides theoretical support for the construction of porous ceramsite and the development of an efficient technology system for the synergistic removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. Full article
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