An increasingly recognized problem in the world is stormwater runoff and its generation of pollutants in urban areas. Stormwater treatment technologies have therefore increased in implementation to prevent this pollution. One of these preventions are detention ponds, which primary function is the equilibration of water, but have also proven to have the capacity to remove many particle-bound pollutants by sedimentation. What's not as known is to what extent. The investigated detention ponds were compared to see to what extent they had accumulated particle-bound elements such as heavy metals, phosphorus and sulphur. This because it is essential to clarify whether they embody ecotoxicological hotspots and if when dredged will have sediment classified as hazardous waste. What was found in this study was that there was no significant difference in accumulation of pollutants or sediment depending on inlet or outlet, a difference between these could still be seen though by looking at the figures. The sediment of some of the detention ponds also had levels of the investigated elements higher than existing guideline values recommend for living organisms in the sediment and could also be classified as hazardous waste when emptied. More investigations need to be done, for example about how hydrology, plant uptake and design affect the sedimentation of pollutants to know for sure how the accumulation of pollutants in detention ponds work.

Increasing population across the globe paved the way for rapid growth in industrialization. Pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture, electronics, electrical and many other industries discharge different types of heavy metals, dyes and organic contaminants into ground water. These discharges are released into lakes and rivers without prior treatment causing huge environmental impact to the environment. Among different remediation techniques, adsorption was considered the most promising method because of its low-cost and high efficiency. Biomass is considered as the most practical and renewable source for production of bio products and biofuels. Biomass is also used for carbon sequestration and as an essential element to produce hydrochar and biochar which are considered as the 21st century black gold. Hydrochar and biochar can be used as an excellent low-cost adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals, dyes and organic contaminants from water. This dissertation work focuses on, firstly, development of novel oxone treated hydrochar as an adsorbent for the efficient removal of Pb(II) and Methylene Blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. Secondly, preparing novel ozone oxidized hydrochar treated with polyethyleneimine for removal of Remzol Brilliant Blue (RBB) and Remzol Reactive Black (RRB) dyes from aqueous solutions. Thirdly, producing high-performance CO2 activated biochar as an adsorbent for efficient removal of Aniline from aqueous solution. All prepared hydrochar and biochar adsorbents were characterized by SEM, TGA, FTIR, Elemental analysis, conductometric titration, and N2 adsorption-desorption isothermal analyses (BET and BJH). The adsorption capacities were determined by Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) respectively. The adsorption capacity of each prepared biochar or hydrochar was determined and both kinetic and isothermal studies were performed. The optimal preparation conditions and adsorption parameters were determined for each adsorbent.

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