Abstract
Zeolite X/activated carbon composite material (X/AC) was prepared from elutrilithe, by a process consisting of carbonization, activation, and subsequent hydrothermal transformation of aluminosilicate in alkaline solution, which was used for the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from aqueous solutions. Adsorption kinetics, equilibrium, and thermodynamic were studied and fitted by various models. The adsorption kinetics is best depicted by pseudosecond-order model, and the adsorption isotherm fits the Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson model. This explains the ammoniacal nitrogen adsorption onto X/AC which was chemical adsorption in nature. Thermodynamic properties such as ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS were determined for the ammoniacal nitrogen adsorption, and the positive enthalpy confirmed that the adsorption process was endothermic. It can be inferred that ammoniacal nitrogen removal by X/AC composite is attributed to the ion exchange ability of zeolite X. Further, as a novel sorbent, this material has the potential application in removing ammoniacal nitrogen coexisting with other organic compounds from industrial wastewater.
Highlights
Water pollution, such as heavy metals, dyes, organic, and inorganic pollutants, is a serious problem for the human being with the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and technological innovations in various disciplines
The biological processes are usually helpless in dealing with the solution containing high concentration ammonium ions
This work aims to realize the value of zeolite X/activated carbon composite synthesized from solid waste on the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from aqueous solutions
Summary
Water pollution, such as heavy metals, dyes, organic, and inorganic pollutants, is a serious problem for the human being with the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and technological innovations in various disciplines. The removal of ammoniacal nitrogen has attracted great attention in wastewater treatment. Several methods such as chemical precipitation, biological processes, ion exchange, and adsorption have been taken and applied to the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from wastewater [9,10,11,12]. Among these technologies, biological processes as one of the most widely used technologies are effective for wastewater with low concentration ammonium ions but require complicated configurations and process routing. Compared with the other methods, ion exchange is more attractive owing to the advantages of simple operation and high effectiveness [13, 14]
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