Scholarly record
NATURAL AND ACTIVATED ZEOLITES AS EFFECTIVE ADSORBENTS IN DRINKING WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Abstract
Recently, zeolites have attracted a significant interest due to their potential use in a wide range of applications related to water treatment and environmental remediation. The chemical and thermal treatments are the most used approaches to improve the zeolites properties by enhancement of sorption properties, surface area and porosity. Chemical (2M NaCl), thermal (150 °C for 24 h) and thermo-chemical (2M NaCl, 150 °C for 24 h) activation methods for a natural clinoptilolite based zeolite originated from Romania were tested in order to find the optimal activation conditions that allow the simultaneous removal of ammonium (NH4+) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). The changes in the zeolite?s structure determined by the activation were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The main mineral constituents of used natural zeolite were clinoptilolite, quartz, muscovite and albite. The influence of the activation process on the performance of zeolite was assessed by cation exchange capacity (CEC) and removal efficiency of NH4+ and H2S from drinking and waste waters. The chemical and thermal treatments do not produce significant structural changes detectable by XRD. The FT-IR spectra show that the zeolites structure did not change by the applied activation treatments. The CEC had the highest value for thermo-chemical activated zeolite (1.29 mEq/100g) and the lowest value for the natural one (0.89 mEq/100g). 5 g of activated and natural zeolite were added to 250 mL of drinking water spiked with 0.5 mg/L NH4+ and 0.5 mg/L H2S and waste water spiked with 3.2 mg/L NH4+ and 2.5 mg/L H2S, and maintained in suspension during 7 days, at room temperature. Samples were drawn for analysis at each 24 h. The results showed that thermally activated zeolite had the highest removal efficiency both for NH4+ (77% removal efficiency, after 48 h) and H2S (87%, after 72 h). The chemical activated zeolite had the lowest efficiency both for NH4+ (54.9%, after 48 h) and H2S (48.4%, after 2 h). The NH4+ retained by the zeolite start to be released after 3 days.
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References4
Montalvo S., Huili?ir C., Borja R., S?nchez E., Herrmann C., Application of zeolites for biological treatment processes of solid wastes and wastewaters – A review, Bioresource Technology, Volume 301, 2020.
Feng H., Li C., Shan H., In-situ synthesis and catalytic activity of ZSM-5 zeolite, Applied Clay Science, Volume 42, Issues 3–4, 2009, 439-445.
Franus W., Wdowin M., Removal of ammonium ions by selected natural and synthetic zeolites, Gospodarka surowcami mineralnymi, Volume 26, 2010.
Alshameri A., Yan C., Ani Y.A., Dawood A.S., Ibrahim A., Zhou C., Wang H., An investigation into the adsorption removal of ammonium by salt activated Chinese (Hulaodu) natural zeolite: Kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics, Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2014, 554-564.
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