Abstract: A chemical-free and no-microbe method for pre-treating a broad range of waste waters is presented. The said method involves electrocoagulation (EC) operated in synchronization with electrolytic ozone (EO3). In the combinatory method, each technique not only applies its own treatments, they also create synergistic effects from real-time reactions among the reagents generated by electrolysis. Two refractory waste waters, seawater and tannery effluent, are tested by the combinatory method, EC+EO3, to assess the viability of the said method. Without adjustment, each of the said waste waters is remedied by EC+EO3 from its raw state to a clean condition more effectively and more economically than that can be delivered by the respective prevailing processes of pretreatment for each of the said waste waters.

Abstract: Using seawater as a benchmark of water with high TDS (total dissolved solids) Raw seawater can be instantly and significantly desalted just by passing a flow through adsorber (FTA) without applying electricity to the adsorbent therein. Various precursors may be converted to dual-functional adsorbents for the FTA. A cation-adsorbing group and an anion-adsorbing group are grafted onto the surface of the adsorbents by phosphorylation and amination, respectively. Based on the applications, the adsorbent may be configured as membrane form or packed bed in the FTA. When the adsorbent becomes saturated, it can be regenerated online using liquids cleaner than the intake. Besides seawater, the FTA may be utilized for treating other TDS-infested wastewaters at very minimal cost.