Iron based sustainable greener technologies to treat cyanobacteria and microcystin-LR in water Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • IWA Publishing 2017. The presence of the toxic cyanobacteria and cyanotoxin, microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and other cyanotoxins, in drinking water sources poses a serious risk to public health. Iron based technologies using magnetic zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) and ferrate ion (FeVIO4 2, Fe(VI)) represent greener approaches to remove cyanobacteria and degrade MC-LR in water. This paper reveals that nanoparticles of zero valent iron (nZVI) can destroy cyanobacteria in the source water and may play a preventive role in terms of the formation of cyanobacterial water blooms by removing nutrients like phosphate. Results on MC-LR showed that Fe(VI) was highly effective in removing MC-LR in water. Products studies on the oxidation of MC-LR by Fe(VI) demonstrated decomposition of the MC-LR structure. Significantly, degradation byproducts of MC-LR did not contain significant biological toxicity. Moreover, Fe(VI) was highly effective for the degradation of MC-LR in lake water samples. Mechanisms of removal and destruction of target contaminants by nZVI and Fe(VI) are discussed.

published proceedings

  • WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-WATER SUPPLY

author list (cited authors)

  • Sharma, V. K., Chen, L., Marsalek, B., Zboril, R., O'Shea, K. E., & Dionysiou, D. D.

citation count

  • 15

complete list of authors

  • Sharma, Virender K||Chen, Long||Marsalek, Blahoslav||Zboril, Radek||O'Shea, Kevin E||Dionysiou, Dionysios D

publication date

  • February 2017