The coal gasification wastewater figures prominently among types of industrial effluents due to its complex and phenolic composition, posing great difficulty for conventional water treatment processes. Since the coking wastewater is toxic and mutagenic to humans and animals, treatment of coal gasification wastewater is genuinely necessary. In this study, we established a lab-scale A2O (Anaerobic-Anoxic—Oxic) with moving bed biological reactor (MBBR) system and evaluated some water indicators of wastewater pretreated with internal electrolysis, of wastewater output of the established A2O-MBBR system, and of the wastewater treated by the combination thereof. The wastewater was taken from a coking plant at Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Joint Stock Company in Vietnam. COD, BOD₅, NH₄⁺-N, phenol, and pH of the input coal gasification wastewater were 2359, 1105, 319, 172 mg/L, and 8 ± 0.1, respectively. The conditions of internal electrolysis were as follows: 720 min of reaction time, pH = 4, 25 g/L Fe-C dosage, and 100 mg/L PAM dosage. After internal electrolysis process, the removal of COD, BOD₅, NH₄⁺-N, and phenol were 53.7%, 56.7% 60.5%, and 73.3%, respectively. After 24 h of treatment, the treatment efficiencies of the combined treatment process are as follows: 100% phenol removal, 71.3% of TSS removal; 97.7% reduction of BOD₅, and 97.1% reduction of COD; total N content reduced by 97.6%; total P content decreased by 81.6%; and NH₄⁺-N content decreased by 97.5%. All above indicators after treatment have met QCVN 52: 2017/BTNMT (column A) Vietnamese standard for steel industry wastewater.

Fe-Cu materials were synthesized using the chemical plating method from Fe powder and CuSO₄ 5% solution and then characterized for surface morphology, composition and structure by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The as-synthesized Fe-Cu material was used for removal of phenol from aqueous solution by internal microelectrolysis. The internal electrolysis-induced phenol decomposition was then studied with respect to various parameters such as pH, time, Fe-Cu material weight, phenol concentration and shaking speed. The optimal phenol decomposition (92.7%) was achieved under the conditions of (1) a pH value of phenol solution of 3, (2) 12 h of shaking at the speed of 200 rpm, (3) Fe-Cu material weight of 10 g/L, (4) initial phenol concentration of 100.98 mg/L and (5) at room temperature (25 ± 0.5 °C). The degradation of phenol using Fe-Cu materials obeyed the second-order apparent kinetics equation with a reaction rate constant of k of 0.009 h⁻¹L mg⁻¹. The optimal process was then tested against real coking wastewater samples, resulting in treated wastewater with favorable water indicators. Current findings justify the use of Fe-Cu materials in practical internal electrolysis processes.

In this study, ZnO nanoparticles were fabricated by using the hydrothermal method for adsorption of phosphate from wastewater. The obtained ZnO nanorods were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), specific surface area (BET) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The ZnO materials were applied for adsorption of phosphate from water using batch experiments. The effects of pH (4–10), adsorption time (30–240 min), the amount of adsorbent (0.1–0.7 g/L) and initial concentration of phosphate (147.637–466.209 mg/L) on the adsorption efficiency were investigated. The optimum condition was found at pH = 5 and at an adsorption time of 150 min. The adsorption was fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm and the maximum adsorption capacity was calculated to be 769.23 mg/g. These results show that ZnO nanomaterial would highly promising for adsorbing phosphate from water. The adsorption of phosphate on ZnO nanomaterials follows the isothermal adsorption model of Langmuir, Tempkin and Freundlich with single-layer adsorption. There is weak interaction between the adsorbent and the adsorbate. Phosphate adsorption of the ZnO nanomaterials follows Lagergren’s apparent second-order kinetic model and was spontaneous and exothermic.

Untreated coking effluent presents a great challenge for sustainable development of the steel industry and environment preservation. In this study, an internal micro-electrolysis method using Fe/C materials was employed for pretreatment of real coking wastewater with high mass concentration. The Fe/C materials were prepared by Fe powder and graphite powder; and the characteristics of surface morphology, structure, composition of the synthesized materials were examined by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The effects of factors namely dosage of Fe/C material, treatment time, initial pH and temperature were investigated via chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenol removal efficiencies. Optimal treatment efficiency was attained at pH of 4, Fe/C dosage of 40 g/L, treatment time of 360 minutes and temperature of 25°C. After the internal electrolysis process, the values of COD, BOD5, and phenol of the wastewater were 6500, 4850 and 0.1 mg/L, respectively.