Abstract

Youssef Belmabkhout, Ali Mohammed Yimer, Achraf Delhali, Ayalew H. Assen 

¹Applied Chemistry and Engineering Research Centre of Excellence (ACER CoE), University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), Lot 660 - Hay Moulay Rachid, 43150 Ben Guerir, Morocco 

The large-scale production of energy, fertilizers, and other industrial commodities has dramatically increased pollution, driving the need for innovative strategies to both capture pollutants and valorize industrial waste. One promising pathway is converting waste into functional porous materials. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), mesoporous silicas, and zeolites are highly effective separation/catalytic agnets, yet their large-scale deployment could be limited by the high cost and purity requirements of commercial precursors. Waste valorization offers a solution by providing abundant, low-cost raw materials that can reduce production costs, ensure a sustainable supply chain, and advance porous material fabrication from laboratory scale to industrially relevant TRLs. In this work, phosphate rock tailings and phosphogypsum from the phosphate industry were transformed into advanced Ca-MOFs, heterometallic mesoporous silicas, and zeolites, while tannery effluents and waste plastic bottles were simultaneously valorized into water-harvesting Cr-terephthalate MOFs. These waste-derived precursors enabled the assembly of functional adsorbents with applications in carbon capture, heavy metal removal, alcohol dehydration, and water harvesting, often yielding heterostructures with enhanced properties not achievable from pure-grade precursors. Structural attributes and adsorption performance were confirmed by a comprehensive suite of analytical and sorption techniques. Overall, this study demonstrates how waste valorization can overcome scale-up challenges, support sustainable production, and accelerate the transition of porous adsorbents toward real-world applications in a circular economy. 

References: 

1. Ali Mohammed Yimer, Ayalew H. Assen, Ikrame El Mghaimimi, Omar Lakbita, Karim Adil, Youssef Belmabkhout, Unlocking the potential of phosphogypsum waste: Unified synthesis of functional metal-organic frameworks and zeolite via a sustainable valorization route, Chem. Eng. J. 2024, 479, 147902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.147902
2. Achraf Delhali, Ayalew H. Assen, Aminat Mohammed, Karim Adil, Youssef Belmabkhout, Enabling simultaneous valorization of tannery effluent and waste plastic via sustainable preparation of Cr-BDC MOFs for water adsorption, Sci. Rep. 2023, 13, 14653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41840-9
3. Ali Mohammed Yimer, Ayalew H Assen, Hamid Ait Said, Abdessamad Elamri, Omar Lakbita, Anthony Rousseau, Karim Adil, Hicham Benyoucef, Youssef Daafi, Youssef Belmabkhout. Direct synthesis of multiple heteroatoms functionalized mesoporous silica adsorbents from phosphate industry mining byproducts. Decontaminating water from Pb(ii) ions as an application case. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2024, 12 (43), 29669-29683. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA05281A