Innovation process of amorphous cellulose - graphene oxide hybrid structure for water treatment in a shrimp farm

Abstract

Amorphous cellulose-graphene oxide bead composites are popularly employed in water purification. However, the existing fabrication methods of amorphous cellulose (AC) and amorphous cellulose-graphene oxide (ACGO) beads are complicated with many chemical use, multi-step, time and energy-consuming. In this research, we proposed an efficient method for fabricating amorphous cellulose-graphene oxide (ACGO) beads using less chemical under a simple 2-step approach. The production process of AC and ACGO beads was successfully fabricated via sulfuric acid (H2SO4) gelatinization and regeneration using eucalyptus paper as a raw material. The cellulose gel was droplet-extruded into deionized (DI) water and transformed into a solid bead via water regeneration. The semicrystalline eucalyptus cellulose was transformed into amorphous cellulose after the regeneration process. 2 mm in diameter of AC (white beads) and ACGO (light brown beads) quasi-sphere beads were obtained. The light brown colour suggested that graphene oxide (GO) was successfully embedded in AC bead. The embedding of GO in the AC was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-Ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Gelatinization and regeneration processes provide a simple and efficient method for producing AC and ACGO beads. In addition, the method was compared to previous solvent systems from two perspectives including practical and economic perspectives to emphasize the advantages of the proposed method. Hence, this proposed method was the practical, efficient, and scalable fabrication of ACGO for commercialization. Moreover, the biodegradable, and renewable ACGO is a potential adsorbent for sustaining water quality, especially for shrimp farms and the ACGO bead can also be considered as one of the alternative “Green materials” for various applications. In the stage of planning for scaling-up scale consists of two scales which are pilot and near commercialization scale. The quantity of ACGO gel is the criteria factor separated between the two scaling-up scales. The quantity of ACGO gel of pilot and near commercialization scales are 510 and 2,550 L per day, respectively. The commercialization plan aims to Thai shrimp farmers to be target customer. Therefore, this research answers all 4 research objectives. Firstly, the ACGO bead fabrication protocol and prototype beads are implemented. Secondly, the prototype beads are characterized via technical tools. Thirdly, the scaling-up plan is created and lastly the commercialization plan and launching plan are employed in many perspectives and scenarios.