The testing and rapid detection of pathogenic organisms is a crucial protocol in the prevention and identification of crises related to health, safety and wellbeing. Pathogen detection has become one of the most challenging aspects in the food and water industries, because of the rapid spread of waterborne and foodborne diseases in the community and at significant costs. With the prospect of inevitable population growth, and an influx of tourism to certain water bodies testing will become a requirement to control and prevent possible outbreaks of potentially fatal illnesses. The legislation is already particularly rigorous in the food industry, where failure to detect pathogenic materials represents a catastrophic event, particularly for the elderly, very young or immune-compromised population types. In spite of the need and requirement for rapid analytical testing, conventional and standard bacterial detection assays may take up to seven days to yield a result. Given the advent of new technologies, biosensors, chemical knowledge and miniaturisation of instrumentation this timescale is not acceptable. This review presents an opportunity to fill a knowledge gap for an extremely important research area; discussing the main techniques, biology, chemistry, miniaturisation, sensing and the emerging state-of-the-art research and developments for detection of pathogens in food, water, blood and faecal samples.

A review of methods for the detection of pathogenic microorganisms

Application of zeolite in removing salinity/sodicity from wastewater: A review of mechanisms, challenges and opportunities

Access to safe water has a significant impact on all parts of society, its growth and sustainability, both politically and socioeconomically. Consequently, the preservation of water and wastewater treatment have become a global challenge. A major contributor to water pollution is improperly or untreated industrial emissions; water resources can be contaminated with harmful pollutants, toxins or pathogenic microorganisms. Carbon's unique chemistry and its evolution due to recent advances in carbon-based technologies such as nanomaterials, offer significant potential for a variety of water purification strategies. This work details the application of carbon materials in combination with nanotechnology in the form of graphene, graphene composites, electrospun membranes and improved activated carbon in a myriad of water treatment systems with an emphasis on the removal of heavy metals, pesticides and harmful bacteria.

Graphene, electrospun membranes and granular activated carbon for eliminating heavy metals, pesticides and bacteria in water and wastewater treatment processes

https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/134888/5/CHEM-S-18-07098%2b%28submited%2bversion%2b24%2bapril%29%20%281%29.pdf

Acid mine drainage treatment by integrated submerged membrane distillation-sorption system.

Herein, we proposed an affordable and facile way of treating the hardening of water from local groundwater and seawater sources. This was facilitated by synthesizing zeolitic materials via an effortless and affordable method from readily available disposed of waste materials. Firstly, by converting waste aluminium (scrap wire cables, takeaway foil, cans, and spray aerosol bottles) along with disposed of silica gel into active zeolitic materials with the aid of a conventional domestic microwave. Small amounts of the produced zeolites (NaX and NaA) were utilized in the removal of the hardness of water (10 g.L−1), showing elimination of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions within 30 min, removing 90 % of the total hardness (> 1000 ppm). The spent zeolite samples can be further used for more than two consequent cycles, then the regeneration can be promoted by using NaCl solution at ambient conditions. The total price for the synthesis of 1 kg of the zeolite produced herein is 14 $/kg. This is 70 % lower than the price of commercial zeolites available in the market. Our proposed facile route in zeolite preparation could potentially change the traditional costly softening treatment techniques. It also minimizes the use of extra chemical materials, templates and multi-step procedures. The excellent hardness removal capacity in groundwater and seawater using synthesized zeolite samples could open doors for various applications.

https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/files/195891055/Zeolite_paper_hardness_of_water_Accepted_.pdf

Facile and affordable synthetic route of nano powder zeolite and its application in fast softening of water hardness

Coal seam gas (CSG) is the extraction of methane gas that is desorbed from the coal seam and brought to the surface using a dewatering and depressurisation process within the saturated coalbed. The extracted water is often referred to as co-produced CSG water. In this study, co-produced water from the coal seam of the Bowen Basin (QLD, Australia) was characterised by high concentration levels of Na+ (1156 mg/L), low concentrations of Ca2+ (28.3 mg/L) and Mg2+ (5.6 mg/L), high levels of salinity, which are expected to cause various environmental problems if released to land or waters. The potential treatment of co-produced water using locally sourced natural ion exchange (zeolite) material was assessed. The zeolite material was characterized for elemental composition and crystal structure. Natural, untreated zeolite demonstrated a capacity to adsorb Na+ ions of 16.16 mEq/100 g, while a treated zeolite using NH4
 + using a 1.0 M ammonium acetate (NH4C2H3O2) solution demonstrated an improved 136 % Na+ capacity value of 38.28 mEq/100 g after 720 min of adsorption time. The theoretical exchange capacity of the natural zeolite was found to be 154 mEq/100 g. Reaction kinetics and diffusion models were used to determine the kinetic and diffusion parameters. Treated zeolite using a NH4
 + pre-treatment represents an effective treatment to reduce Na+ concentration in coal seam gas co-produced waters, supported by the measured and modelled kinetic rates and capacity.

/pdf/novel-pre-treatment-of-zeolite-materials-for-the-removal-of-4ahtrd0w7m.pdf

Ben Kele

Papers

Novel pre-treatment of zeolite materials for the removal of sodium ions: potential materials for coal seam gas co-produced wastewater