scholarly journals Development of Kaolin Clay as a Cost-Effective Technology for Defluoridation of Groundwater

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Adane Adugna Ayalew

Excessive fluoride in potable groundwater is a serious health problem in rural areas of many developing countries. The presence of a small amount of fluoride in potable water is beneficial to human health, but a high amount (>1.5 mg/L) has adverse effects. The present study is aimed to prepare a new cost-effective adsorbent of kaolin clay that can be used as a valuable defluoridating agent. Characterization of the prepared adsorbent was carried out using DSC, FTIR, TGA, and XRD. Also, the surface area of the adsorbent was measured by BET analysis. The clay was activated with concentrated H2SO4, and the effects of various experimental parameters such as temperature (25, 40, 50, and 60°C), pH (2, 4, 6, and 8), particle size (<0.075, 0.075–0.15, and 0.15–0.30 mm), contact time (30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min), and dose of the adsorbents (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 g) were investigated using a batch adsorption method. The specific surface area of raw and activated clay was found to be 10.598 m2/g and 5.258 m2/g, respectively. The optimum fluoride removal by both adsorbents was obtained at pH 4, temperature 50°C, particle size 0.075 mm, and 60 min. In both adsorbents, the degree of fluoride removal was increased with a decrease in the particle size of the adsorbent and increased contact time and dosage of the adsorbent. In all parameters, adsorption by activated clay was better than raw kaolin clay for retaining fluoride. The obtained data were well fitted with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models.

Author(s):  
Sonam Rani ◽  
Alok Garg ◽  
Neetu Singh

Abstract Photocatalysis is an extraordinary and vastly researched topic; there is a need to find new ways to support producing composite materials that are cost-effective, efficient and have a low environmental impact. The investigation was undertaken on syn TiO2 by depositing it on silica. The results elucidate the positive effect on photocatalysis activity and the macroscopic structure on which the TiO2 is formed. For the analysis of photocatalyst, various characterisation measurements were undertaken, such as XRD, FTIR, DRS, FESEM, TEM, RS, and BET. The accumulated TiO2 onto the surface of SiO2 stabilised its transformation of the phase from anatase to rutile, resulting in decreased particle size and enhancing its photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation. The concentration of OH• radicals was determined using terephthalic acid as a probe molecule to determine its role in the photocatalytic degradation of antihistamine. The results of BET analysis showed that the syn TiO2-SiO2 sample has a large specific surface area of 192.6 m2 g−1. Maximum degradation of cetirizine (about 97%) was achieved with 80% TiO2-20% SiO2 (TS-4). Recyclability test confirmed that 80% TiO2-20% SiO2 sample was stable up to six cycles.


2016 ◽  
Vol Volume 112 (Number 11/12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabelani Mudzielwana ◽  
Mugera W. Gitari ◽  
Titus A.M. Msagati ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

Abstract Groundwater is a widely used and affordable source of drinking water in most of the rural areas of South Africa. Several studies have indicated that groundwater in some boreholes in South Africa has a fluoride concentration above the level recommended by the World Health Organization (1.5 mg/L). Fluoride concentrations above the permissible limit (>1.5 mg/L) lead to dental fluorosis, with even higher concentrations leading to skeletal fluorosis. In the present work, we evaluate the application of smectite-rich clay soil from Mukondeni (Limpopo Province, South Africa) in defluoridation of groundwater. The clay soil was characterised by mineralogy using X-ray diffraction, by elemental composition using X-ray fluorescence and by morphology using scanning electron microscopy. Surface area and pore volume was determined by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface analysis method. Cation exchange capacity and pHpzc of the soil were also evaluated using standard laboratory methods. Batch experiments were conducted to evaluate and optimise various operational parameters such as contact time, adsorbent dose, pH and initial adsorbate concentration. It was observed that 0.8 g/100 mL of smectite-rich clay soil removed up to 92% of fluoride from the initial concentration of 3 mg/L at a pH of 2 with a contact time of 30 min. The experimental data fitted well to a Langmuir adsorption isotherm and followed pseudo second order reaction kinetics. Smectite-rich clay soil showed 52% fluoride removal from field groundwater with an initial fluoride concentration of 5.4 mg/L at an initial pH of 2 and 44% removal at a natural pH of 7.8. Therefore smectite-rich clay soil from Mukondeni has potential for application in defluoridation of groundwater. Chemical modification is recommended to improve the defluoridation capacity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Ali Q. Alorabi

In this work, magnetized activated Juniperus procera leaves (Fe3O4@AJPL) were successfully prepared via chemical activation of JPL and in situ coprecipitation with Fe3O4. A Fe3O4@AJPL nanocomposite was successfully applied for the elimination of malachite green (MG) dye from aqueous media. The prepared Fe3O4@AJPL adsorbent was characterized by SEM, EDX, TEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, and BET surface area analyses. The BET surface area and pore size of the Fe3O4@AJPL nanocomposite were found to be 38.44 m2/g and 10.6 nm, respectively. The XRD and FTIR results indicated the formation of a Fe3O4@AJPL nanocomposite. Different parameters, such as pH of the solution (3–8), adsorbent dosage (10–100 mg), temperature (25–45°C), contact time (5-240 min), and initial MG concentrations (20–350 mg/L), for the elimination of the MG dye using Fe3O4@AJPL were optimized and found to be 7, 50 mg, 45°C, 120 min, and 150 mg/L, respectively. The nonlinear isotherm and kinetic studies exhibited a better fitting to second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models, with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 318.3 mg/g at 45°C, which was highly superior to the previously reported magnetic nanocomposite adsorbents. EDX analyses confirmed the presence of nitrogen on the Fe3O4@AJPL surface after MG adsorption. The calculated thermodynamic factors indicated endothermic and spontaneous processes. The desorption of MG dye from Fe3O4@AJPL was performed using a solution of 90% ethanol. Finally, it could be concluded that the designed Fe3O4@AJPL magnetic nanocomposite will be a cost-effective and promising adsorbent for the elimination of MG from aqueous media.


2018 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 03035
Author(s):  
Thachanan Samanmulya ◽  
Pawinee Deetae ◽  
Patthranit Wongpromrat

This study focused on adsorption of atrazine in adsorbent synthesized from Rice Straw. Rice Straw biochar were used in the study as they exhibited significantly high adsorption capacity for pesticide. Briefly, rice straw was pyrolysis at 600°C under nitrogen then biochar was modified using H3PO4. Biochar were characterized for their physico-chemical characteristics. The elemental analysis of biochar was performed using CHNS Analysis. The surface area and pore volume of adsorbents were estimated using the Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET Analysis). In parts of Batch adsorption experiments was performed in range of room temperature and were divided to 2 parts. Part 1: Study of the kinetics adsorption was investigated using two models, namely, the pseudo-first-order and the pseudo-second-order models. Part 2: study of Adsorption isotherms. The results of CHNS analysis shows the elemental analysis that 51.795% of C, 0.763% of H, 1.634% of N and 0.654 % of S and the result of BET Analysis shows the surface area is 372.4 m2/g and pore volume of adsorbents is 0.315 cm3. From plotting between qt(mg/g) and time (t) shows the dynamics of the adsorption of atrazine onto the biochar at 15 ppm of initial atrazine concentrations. In general, atrazine was adsorbed quickly around 1-30 min. This could be due to fast mass transfer of solute from the solution to surface of adsorbent s as a result of concentration gradient of the solute. The study of the kinetics adsorption showed that the pseudo-second-order model best described the adsorption which agrees with chemisorption as the rate controlling mechanism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizina Khatua ◽  
Rudrashish Panda ◽  
Avanendra Singh ◽  
Arpan Nayak ◽  
Pravakar Satapathy ◽  
...  

In this work, the ZnO-TiO2 mixed phase nanoparticles were prepared by solid state reaction method by using ZnO and TiO2 powder as precursors. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows a dominant phase of Zinc Orthotitanate (Zn2TiO4). The average particle size (58?18 nm) calculated by the analysing FESEM data closely matches with the particle size calculated by Scherrer?s equation. The calculated average particle size is significantly smaller than the previously published results of nanoparticles, prepared by same method. In the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) study the specific surface area of the nanoparticles was found as 8.78 m2/g which is similar to the surface area reported in this material prepared by mechanochemical method. The method which we report is simpler and cost effective unlike the previous reported.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 3996-4005 ◽  

Maize tassels (MT), an agro-based biomass waste was carbonised followed by thermo-chemical modification using tartaric acid. The functionalized activated carbon was further modified to yield a magnetic hybrid composite adsorbent. The adsorbent was characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The adsorbent was evaluated for its efficiency to remove Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions through batch adsorption studies following a Central Composite Design. Effects of solution pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial metal concentration and temperature on Cd(II) adsorption were investigated. Optimization of the adsorption process was done using desirability function on the Design Expert V11 software. The desirability function showed that the optimum parameters were pH 5.29, contact time (67.50 min), dosage (0.575 g) and initial concentration (152.50 mg/L). The adsorption process was analysed using kinetic and isotherm models. The kinetics of the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order model (lowest sum of square error (SSE) values and correlation coefficients (R2) > 0.999) in addition to the intraparticle diffusion model. The isotherm data were consistent with the Langmuir isotherm as evidenced by the highest correlation coefficient (R2= 0.998). The thermodynamic parameters showed that the process was endothermic and spontaneous in nature. The adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was found to be 188.68 mg/g at 20 ⁰C which is higher than that of the previously reported magnetic maize tassel hybrid (52.05 mg/g). The adsorbent showed good removal efficiency on real effluent samples.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thulani Dlamini

Several areas in the world such as the United States of America, Sri Lanka, China, Argentina, Canada, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and many others have a problem of high fluoride content in drinking water. Generally fluoride levels above 1.5 ppm in water may result in dental and skeletal fluorosis in humans depending on quantity consumed (Fan et al., 2003; Meenakshi, 2004). Remote rural areas where there are no water treatment facilities are more vulnerable to this problem. Adsorbents such as activated alumina and FR-10 resin seem to have a potential for successful application in rural areas. These methods however require pre-treatment if the feed has high turbidity. A membrane based system called woven fabric microfiltration gravity filter (WFMFGF) developed by Durban University of Technology proved to be suitable for turbidity removal. The main objective of this research was to develop a small water treatment system for fluoride removal. The small water treatment system developed in this study consists of WFMFGF for pre-treatment and an adsorption column. The WFMFGF is made up of a 40 L container packed with 15 immersed flat sheet membrane elements. The operation of the WFMFGF is in batch mode, driven by varying static head. The static head variation results in flow rate variation through the system. This in turn result in variation of contact time, velocity as well as pressure drop in the fluoride removal unit. Specific objectives of the study were: (1) to establish the maximum and minimum flow rates through the WFMFGF system, the total run time before cleaning is required and the best cleaning method for this particular membrane system. (2) to evaluate and compare the performance of activated alumina and FR-10 resin on varying contact time, velocity and pressure drop on the fluoride removal unit. The adsorbents were also compared on adsorption capacity, cost and ease of operation. The minimum and maximum flow rates through the WFMFGF were found to be 5 l/hr and 100 l/hr respectively. It was found that the system can be run for more than a month before requiring cleaning. The suitable cleaning method was found to be soaking the membranes in 0.0225 percent sodium hypochlorite solution overnight and brushing them using a plastic brush. The comparison of the performance of FR-10 resin to activated alumina found that the adsorbents gave equal performance based on the given criteria. FR-10 resin had higher adsorption capacity, gave good quality treated water even with shorter contact time and operated at wider velocity range. Activated alumina on the other hand had an advantage of lower costs, lower pressure drop and ease of use. According to Pontius (1990), the performance of activated alumina can be improved by intermittent operation. Point of use (POU) systems are generally operated intermittently. This improves the fluoride removal efficiency of activated alumina giving it more advantage over FR-10 resin. Based on this activated alumina was selected as the best adsorbent for the system. After the adsorbent was selected, the adsorption column was designed. The column operation regime was 3.5 minutes minimum contact time and 1.17 to 7.8 m/hr velocity range. The activated alumina adsorption capacity was 1.53mg/g. The column had an inside diameter of 70 mm. It was packed with activated alumina to a bed height of 400 mm. The column inlet and outlet pipes were made of PVC with a standard pipe size of 20 mm outside diameter. A valve at the column inlet pipe allowed water to flow through the system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahsa Golghasemi Sorkhabi ◽  
Hassan Aghdasinia ◽  
Fatemeh Notghi Oskui ◽  
Afzal Karimi ◽  
Mortaza Golizadeh

Abstract Simultaneous removal of Cr^3+ and acidic dye from model tannery wastewater was investigated using local nano clay modified by 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (CHPTAC) surfactant. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur analysis (CHNS), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) analysis and pH of zero point charge (pH_ZPC) analyses were carried out for characterization of the adsorbent, and adsorptive properties of the modified clay were investigated by batch experiments. The effects of essential parameters, such as adsorbent dosage, initial solution pH, initial solution concentration, contact time, and temperature, were studied. Maximum adsorption values (99.74% for Cr^3+ and 83.26% for dye) were obtained in the following conditions: pH of 4, initial concentration of 100 mg/L, adsorbent dosage of 15000 mg/L, contact time of 30 min. The effect of contaminants’ concentration was also investigated through response surface methodology (RSM), central composite face-centered (CCF) design and an empirical model was presented. The results of kinetic models’ studies demonstrated that simultaneous adsorption of contaminants follows the pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption data of single and binary solutions fitted nonlinearly to isotherm models showed that the adsorption of Cr (III) from binary and single solutions follow Langmuir and Dubinin-Radushkevitch (D-R) isotherms, respectively. Adsorption of dye from both single and binary solutions follows Redlich- Peterson (R-PT) isotherm. Maximum adsorption capacities were obtained to be 193.1390 mg/g and 144.1782 mg/g for Cr^3+ and dye, respectively. Synergistic and antagonistic adsorptions were observed in binary solutions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 726-731 ◽  
pp. 695-699
Author(s):  
Li Hong ◽  
Si Xiang Wang ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Yue Chun Zhang

Humic acid adsorbent modified with metal ions was prepared by gel polymerization and named gel composite of metal ion and humic acid, which abbreviated GCMH to uptake fluoride from drinking water. The samples were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Fluoride adsorption onto the synthesized samples was investigated by batch adsorption method. In previous works, detailed studies were carried out to investigate the effect of contact time, adsorbent dose, initial solution pH, temperatures and co-existing anions. The maximum fluoride removal was obtained at pH7. Presence of HCO3− adversely affected the adsorption of fluoride. The optimum absorption conditions were at the dose of 10g/L, temperature of water of 55°Cand contact time of 6hs.


Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 852
Author(s):  
Sicong Yao ◽  
Massimiliano Fabbricino ◽  
Marco Race ◽  
Alberto Ferraro ◽  
Ludovico Pontoni ◽  
...  

Digestate, as an urban solid waste, was considered as an innovative adsorbent for colorant polluted wastewater. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out using digestate as an adsorbent material to remove various dyes belonging to different categories. The removal rate and adsorption capacity of dyes were evaluated and the dose of digestate, contact time, and initial dye concentration were studied. The maximum removal rate was approximately 96% for Methylene Blue. The equilibrium time for the Methylene Blue was 4 h, while for other dyes, a longer contact time was required to reach the equilibrium. The suspicion of colloidal matter release into the solution from solid fraction of the digestate led to the investigation of the consequence of a washing step of the digestate adsorbent upstream the adsorption experiment. Washed and not washed adsorbents were tested and the differences between them in terms of dye removal were compared. Moreover, experimental data were fitted by pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intra-partial diffusion kinetic models as well as Langmuir, Freundlich, and Sips isotherm models. The results from fitted models showed that the adsorption of various dyes onto the digestate was mostly well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document