Our paper titled Steroid hormone micropollutant removal from membrane bioreactor effluents using single-walled carbon nanotube composite nanofiber membranes has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal (2025 IF of 13.5).
What the paper is about
This paper highlights the challenges of applying new technologies, particulaly adsorption by carbon nanotubes, to remove micropollutants and purify water.
We identified some key limitations. First, organic matter in water competes strongly with the micropollutants and this reduces the technology’s performance for micropollutant removal. Second, the technology works for our target micropollutants, but does not perform well towards other micropollutants in a complex water matrix.
It is also noteworthy that carbon nanotubes can be toxic to humans and are hardly accepted in water treatment.
Our findings consolidate that carbon nanotube adsorption is nowhere near replacing the “big names” − ozonation or powdered activated carbon adsorption − in removing micropollutants. In a field where novel materials or processes are frequently hyped up, it is important to take a step back.