Analysis of the Effect of a Magnetic Field Applied to a Process of Adsorption of Water Contaminants Using Adsorbents of Different Magnetic Orderings

Abstract

Adsorption studies were carried out to determine the behavior of three carbonaceous adsorbents with different magnetic orderings (ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, and diamagnetic) and the effect of an external magnetic field on the adsorption of a cation (lead, Pb2+) and an anion (fluoride, F–). Two different static magnetic field intensities were used to analyze the sensitivity of the adsorption system as a function of the applied magnetic field, based on computational simulations, with the aim of determining the degree of magnetization of each system and the distribution of the flow density generated by each magnetic field application system. The results of the adsorption studies for the removal of Pb2+ showed a correlation between the adsorption capacities and the magnetic ordering of the adsorbent material. Particularly, the activated carbon of bituminous coal (ferromagnetic) showed an increase of 15%, whereas bone char (paramagnetic) showed an increase of 6%. On the other hand, this behavior was not observed in the studies for the removal of fluoride.