Design a new nano-filter for purification of polluted water

Abstract

The contamination of water by heavy metals become one of the most environment concerns worldwide, due to their toxicity and ability to accumulate in the food and human bodies. There are different sources of heavy metals available in the Kurdistan region such as oil refining and plastic industries. In such processes, large amounts of wastewater are thrown into rivers, thus contaminate them with toxic heavy metals which leads to environmental pollution. Since, most of the heavy metals are soluble in the water. Therefore, using contaminated water for agricultural proposes cause to contaminate the human food chain and threaten people's health. For this reason, removal of heavy metals in the water is necessary. In this study, we designed a new filtration technique for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. The designed nano-filter consists of layers of nano-materials including, carbon nanotube, super activated carbon nanoparticles and magnetic nanoparticles. The results showed the nano-filter has an interesting capability for removing heavy metals. The heavy metals such as Ag, Hg, Mn, Fe, As, Ba, Zn, Ni, V, Mo and Ti from wastewater effluent has been removed from 15% to 100%. Also, their physical properties have been improved after the filtration through the designed nano-filter.