# Sustainable treatment of ceramic manufacturing wastewater using combined advanced oxidation and coagulation/precipitation processes with green nano zero-valent iron: multi-metal corrosion monitoring

## TL;DR

This paper explores a sustainable wastewater treatment method for the ceramic industry using green nano zero-valent iron to reduce metal corrosion and improve water reuse.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel green nZVI-based treatment process and provides a multi-metal corrosion benchmarking analysis for ceramic industry wastewater.

## Key findings

- Advanced-treated water reduced steel corrosion by 86% compared to untreated wastewater.
- Stainless steel corrosion improved slightly, but copper corrosion resistance worsened with the new treatment.
- Statistical analysis confirmed significant differences in corrosion rates between treatment methods.

## Abstract

The ceramic industry generates significant amounts of wastewater, which contains many corrosive ions that pose extensive hazard to the integrity of piping systems, equipment, and machinery, resulting in increased maintenance costs, frequent equipment exchange, and downtimes. To address these issues and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals an advanced treatment process using Fenton Oxidation, coagulation/precipitation, and the addition of green “nano Zero-Valent Iron (nZVI)” was applied to “Ceramica Venezia” wastewater, one of the ceramic factories in Egypt. This study provides a unique multi-metal corrosion benchmarking analysis (Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel, and Copper) specifically examining the impact of green-nZVI advanced treatment on ceramic industrial effluent reuse in comparison with the factory’s initial treatment process and untreated ceramic wastewater. The corrosion rate was evaluated using electrochemical techniques, EIS, and PDP of different metals in these two different treatment protocols. Moreover, statistical tools, including ANOVA and t-test, were applied to interpret the results. Advanced-treated water (ATW) exhibited an 86% reduction in steel corrosion and a minor improvement in stainless steel corrosion; meanwhile, worsening copper corrosion resistance. Accordingly, different treatment strategies should be studied for achieving better copper protection.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-42824-1.