Clean water is a vital need for all living creatures during their lifespan. However, contaminated stormwater is a major issue around the globe. A wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals, organic and inorganic impurities, has been discovered in stormwater. Some commonly utilized methods, such as biological, physical and chemical procedures, have been considered to overcome these issues. However, these current approaches result in moderate to low contaminant removal efficiencies for certain classes of contaminants. Of late, filtration and adsorption processes have become more featured in permeable concretes (PCs) for the treatment of stormwater. As nanoparticles have vast potential and unique characterizations, such as a higher surface area to cure polluted stormwater, employing them to improve permeable concretes’ capabilities in stormwater treatment systems is an effective way to increase filtration and adsorption mechanisms. The present study reviews the removal rate of different stormwater contaminants such as heavy metals, organic and other pollutants using nanoparticle-improved PC. The application of different kinds of nanomaterials in PC as porous media to investigate their influences on the properties of PC, including the permeability rate, compressive strength, adsorption capacity and mix design of such concrete, was also studied. The findings of this review show that different types of nanomaterials improve the removal efficiency, compressive strength and adsorption capacity and decrease the infiltration rate of PC during the stormwater treatment process. With regard to the lack of comprehensive investigation concerning the use of nanomaterials in PC to treat polluted stormwater runoff, this study reviews 242 published articles on the removal rate of different stormwater contaminants by using PC improved with nanoparticles.

This paper reports a facile method for removal of sulfate from wastewater by magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MMWCNTs). Multi-walled carbon nanotubes and MMWCNTs were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry. The results of the analysis indicated that MMWCNTs were synthesized successfully. The MMWCNTs can be easily manipulated in a magnetic field for the desired separation, leading to the removal of sulfate from wastewater. Response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with central composite design was applied to evaluate the effects of D/C (adsorbent dosage per initial concentration of pollutant (mgadsorbent/(mg/l)initial)) and pH on sulfate removal (%). Using RSM methodology, a quadratic polynomial equation was obtained, for removal of sulfate, by multiple regression analysis. The optimum combination for maximum sulfate removal of 93.28% was pH = 5.96 and D/C = 24.35. The experimental data were evaluated by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. The adsorption capacity of sulfate in the studied concentration range was 56.94 (mg/g). It was found out that the MMWCNTs could be considered as a promising adsorbent for the removal of sulfate from wastewater.

The utilization of by-products and waste materials to substitute for the natural or manufactured resources is considered as a practical way to obtain green building materials. In concrete mixtures, amongst the many available options, Fly Ash (FA) as a by-product pozzolan has been used as a partial replacement of cement. As for the aggregates, lightweight agro-waste oil palm shell (OPS) can be used as a replacement to conventional aggregate for the production of lightweight aggregate concrete. The present communication aims to investigate the impact of FA on time-dependent development properties of OPS lightweight aggregate concrete, including density, water absorption, compressive strength up to 120-days, and drying shrinkage up to the age of 365-days under standard moist curing, partially early curing, and non-curing conditions. Additionally, drying shrinkage crack development was investigated. In this study, two series of concrete mixtures with different substitution levels of OPS (0%, 50%, and 100%) and FA were tested. From the obtained results, it was concluded that the incorporation of fly ash in OPS concrete reduces the density and compressive strength values. Dually, the initial and final water absorption values plus the rate of drying shrinkage at early and long-term ages increased. On top of that, a high potential of drying shrinkage crack, especially for mixtures with 100% OPS, was identified.

Water absorption test is used to evaluate overall performance of concrete in terms of durability. The water absorption of lightweight concrete might be considerably higher than the conventional concrete due to higher rate of pores in concrete and lightweight aggregate. Oil palm shell is a bio-solid waste in palm oil industry, which could be used as lightweight aggregate in the concrete mixture. The present study aims to measure the initial and final water absorption and compressive strength of oil palm shell lightweight concrete in order to evaluation of quality control and durability performance. Total normal coarse aggregates were substituted with coarse oil palm shell in a high strength concrete mixture. The quality of concrete was then evaluated based on the compressive strength and water absorption rates. The results showed that fully substitution of normal coarse aggregates with oil palm shell significantly reduced the compressive strength. However, this concrete with the 28-day compressive strength of 40 MPa still can be used as structural concrete. The initial and final water absorption test results also showed that this concrete is not considered as a good concrete in terms of durability. Therefore, it is recommended that both compressive strength and waster absorption tests must be performed for quality control of oil palm shell concretes.