Invasive plants have finally emerged as a productive factor in dealing with a matter of global concern: excess fluoride in groundwater, which poses an environmental and public health risk.
Researchers from Northeast Normal University in China have developed a new invasive plant-derived material that efficiently captures fluoride while also creating value from invasive plant biomass.
The research team developed a nano-magnesium oxide modified pyro-hydrochar (or nMgO/Py-HyC), made from residues of the invasive plant Rhus typhina. The material achieved a maximum fluoride adsorption capacity of 469.64 milligrams per gram, outperforming the magnesium oxide (MgO)-based adsorbents compared in the study.
The team first converted Rhus typhina biomass into hydrochar – a carbon-rich solid material produced by heating wet organic waste or biomass in water under moderate heat and pressure. They then produced the magnesium-containing composite through a relatively simple pyrolysis process. The resulting porous carbon structure helped disperse nano-MgO particles and provided numerous sites for fluoride capture.
Although fluoride occurs naturally in groundwater, industrial activities increase excess fluoride levels, causing serious health issues. While effective water treatment technologies are required to mitigate the harmful public health impacts of fluoride, this new finding highlights the crucial role invasive plants can play in achieving these results.
However, further work is needed to evaluate the material under different real-world wastewater conditions, including at an engineering scale. Still, the findings provide a promising foundation for developing high-efficiency, low-carbon fluoride treatment technologies using invasive plant biomass.
