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Ou X, Tomatis M, Payne B, Daly H, Chansai S, Fan X, D'Agostino C, Azapagic A, Hardacre C. Fracking wastewater treatment: Catalytic performance and life cycle environmental impacts of cerium-based mixed oxide catalysts for catalytic wet oxidation of organic compounds. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 860:160480. [PMID: 36435262 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 10/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Water scarcity and the consequent increase of freshwater prices are a cause for concern in regions where shale gas is being extracted via hydraulic fracturing. Wastewater treatment methods aimed at reuse/recycle of fracking wastewater can help reduce water stress of the fracking process. Accordingly, this study assessed the catalytic performance and life cycle environmental impacts of cerium-based mixed oxide catalysts for catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) of organic contaminants, in order to investigate their potential as catalysts for fracking wastewater treatment. For these purposes, MnCeOx and CuCeOx were tested for phenol removal in the presence of concentrated NaCl (200 g L-1), which represented a synthetic fracking wastewater. Removal of phenol in pure ("phenolic") water without NaCl was also considered for comparison. Complete (100 %) phenol and a 94 % total organic carbon (TOC) removal were achieved in both the phenolic and fracking wastewaters by utilising MnCeOx (5 g L-1) and insignificant metal leaching was observed. However, a much lower activity was observed when the same amount of CuCeOx was utilised: 23.3 % and 20.5 % for phenol and TOC removals, respectively, in the phenolic, and 69.1 % and 63 % in the fracking wastewater. Furthermore, severe copper leaching from CuCeOx was observed during stability tests conducted in the fracking wastewater. A life cycle assessment (LCA) study carried out as part of this work showed that the production of MnCeOx had 12-98 % lower impacts than CuCeOx due to the higher impacts of copper than manganese precursors. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of CWO were found to be 94-99 % lower than those of ozonation due to lower energy and material requirements. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the adoption of catalytic treatment would improve both the efficiency and the environmental sustainability of both the fracking wastewater treatment and the fracking process as a whole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoxia Ou
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; Nottingham Ningbo China Beacons of Excellence Research and Innovation Institute, 211 Xingguang Road, Ningbo, China.
| | - Marco Tomatis
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Billy Payne
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Helen Daly
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Sarayute Chansai
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Xiaolei Fan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Carmine D'Agostino
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Chimica, Ambientale e dei Materiali (DICAM), Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Via Terracini, 28, 40131 Bologna, Italy
| | - Adisa Azapagic
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
| | - Christopher Hardacre
- Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
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