New sustainable utilization approach of livestock manure: Conversion to dual-reaction-center Fenton-like catalyst for water purification

Rural pollution is largely caused by the accumulation of waste biomass, such as livestock manure and crop straw, which is extremely difficult to dispose of due to the simultaneous need to non-destructively treat metal and organic matter. Untreated fecal waste fluxes have contributed to more than 870,000 sanitation-related deaths annually worldwide. The existing disposal methods are accompanied by large amounts of energy and resource consumption and GHG emissions, which are not conducive to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Herein, we pioneer a new approach to sustainable resource utilization by subjecting unprocessed livestock manure to a Dual-Reaction-Center (DRC) Fenton-like catalyst directly through the ordered bonding of intrinsic metal-organic species via an in situ 2-stage calcination-annealing process with zero emissions and zero pollution. The directional electron transfers along with the generated metal cation-π interactions during the resourcelized process led to the formation of electron-rich/-poor microregions. Through triggering by a small amount of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), the removal of refractory pollutants reaches 100% within a very short time in this system, which also shows a long-term purification effect on actual wastewater, accompanied by the utilization of intrinsic energy from the pollutants and dissolved oxygen. This study is expected to advance the resource utilization of rural waste and the sustainable development of environmental factors.

Yingtao Sun, Chun Hu, Lai Lyu