Date-Palm Waste Usage for Low-cost Advanced Treatment for Domestic Wastewater in Arid regions

Arid countries suffer from the water shortage especially, with the recent high-water demand. It is crucial for governmental sectors and researchers to find a solution to this critical problem. This study introduces a possible solution through the reuse of treated wastewater. The proposed solution provides the reuse of the treated wastewater for unrestricted irrigation purposes. This solution also solves the problem of wastewater discharge into the environment and saves natural water resources. The work adopted a low-cost and advanced treatment method by using natural materials such as date-palm wastes. These wastes are abundant in arid countries and may introduce a problem also for their landfill. The study explored the possibility of using the date-palm waste as an absorbent material for the pollutants from domestic wastewater effluents. The research methodology relied on the experimental work on a lab scale. Leaching batch tests for this waste were adopted initially to evaluate its ions’ extraction into water. Then its ability for the purification of wastewater effluents was investigated through an absorption mechanism. Various parameters were examined in both processes such as the liquid to solid ratio (L/S), initial pH, and material size. In addition, different types of palm wastes were studied such as wastes from leaves, stems, and trunks. The results of leaching tests showed in general a high rate of release of many ions into distillated water at different conditions. Treatment results also exhibited a notable increase of element release into wastewater effluents. Prewashing and drying the coarse wastes before using them with wastewater demonstrated a promising ability for these wastes to remove many elements from wastewater.

 [1]      E. DeNicola, O. S. Aburizaiza, A. Siddique, H. Khwaja, and D. O. Carpenter, “Climate change and water scarcity: The case of Saudi Arabia,” Annals of Global Health, vol. 81, no. 3. pp. 342–353, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.aogh.2015.08.005.

[2]      B. Maryam and H. Büyükgüng?r, “Wastewater reclamation and reuse trends in Turkey: Opportunities and challenges,” Journal of Water Process Engineering, vol. 30. p. 100501, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2017.10.001.

[3]      M. Shafiq, A. A. Alazba, and M. T. Amin, “Removal of heavy metals from wastewater using date palm as a biosorbent: A comparative review,” Sains Malaysiana, vol. 47, no. 1. pp. 35–49, 2018, doi: 10.17576/jsm-2018-4701-05.

[4]      K. M. Alananbeh, N. A. Bouqellah, and N. S. Al Kaff, “Cultivation of oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus on date-palm leaves mixed with other agro-wastes in Saudi Arabia,” Saudi J. Biol. Sci., vol. 21, no. 6, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2014.08.001.

[5]      A. Faiad, M. Alsmari, M. M. Z. Ahmed, M. L. Bouazizi, B. Alzahrani, and H. Alrobei, “Date Palm Tree Waste Recycling: Treatment and Processing for Potential Engineering Applications,” Sustainability (Switzerland), vol. 14, no. 3. 2022, doi: 10.3390/su14031134.

[6]      K. Rambabu, G. Bharath, A. Avornyo, A. Thanigaivelan, A. Hai, and F. Banat, “Valorization of date palm leaves for adsorptive remediation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicide polluted agricultural runoff,” Environ. Pollut., vol. 316, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120612.

[7]      T. Ahmad et al., “The use of date palm as a potential adsorbent for wastewater treatment: A review,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 19, no. 5. pp. 1464–1484, 2012, doi: 10.1007/s11356-011-0709-8.

[8]     M. Nujic, N. Velic, and M. Habuda-Stani?, “Application of Date-Palm Fibres for the Wastewater Treatment,” 2019, pp. 179–191.

[9]      M. Jonoobi, M. Shafie, Y. Shirmohammadli, A. Ashori, H. Zarea-Hosseinabadi, and T. Mekonnen, “A review on date palm tree: Properties, characterization and its potential applications,” Journal of Renewable Materials, vol. 7, no. 11. pp. 1055–1075, 2019, doi: 10.32604/jrm.2019.08188.

[10]    A. A. Juma Mohamed, L. A. Vuai, M. Kombo, and O. J. Chukwuma, “Removal of selected metal ions using powder of seeds of Ajwaa dates from aqueous solution,” J. Anal. Pharm. Res., vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 228–232, 2019, doi: 10.15406/japlr.2019.08.00343.

[11]    H. Altaher, “Preliminary study of the effect of using biosorbents on the pollution of the treated water,” Glob. Nest J., vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 707–716, 2014, doi: 10.30955/gnj.001385.

[12]    British Standards Institution, “British Standard: Characterisation of waste. Leaching. Compliance test for leaching of granular waste materials and sludges. One stage batch test at a liquid to solid ratio of 10 l/kg for materials with particle size below 4 mm (without or with size reduc,” British Standard. 2002.

[13]    R. Dortwegt and E. V. Maughan, “The chemistry of copper in water and related studies planned at the advanced photon source,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference, 2001, vol. 2, pp. 1456–1458, doi: 10.1109/pac.2001.986712.

[14]    H. Luo, Y. Cheng, D. He, and E. H. Yang, “Review of leaching behavior of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash,” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 668. pp. 90–103, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.004.

[15]    A. S. Mahmoud, R. S. Farag, and M. M. Elshfai, “Reduction of organic matter from municipal wastewater at low cost using green synthesis nano iron extracted from black tea: Artificial intelligence with regression analysis,” Egypt. J. Pet., vol. 29, no. 1, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.ejpe.2019.09.001.

[16]    M. Shafiquzzaman, M. M. Hasan, H. Haider, A. T. Ahmed, and S. A. Razzak, “Comparative evaluation of low-cost ceramic membrane and polymeric micro membrane in algal membrane photobioreactor for wastewater treatment,” J. Environ. Manage., vol. 345, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118894.