Remediation of contaminated water from nitrate and diazinon by nanofiltration process

Abstract

Nitrate and diazinon pesticide is among the environmental challenges which enter water resources, mostly as a result of agricultural activities. In this study, the effects of diazinon concentration, nitrate concentration and pH on the efficiency of simultaneous removal of contaminants from polluted water were investigated, applying a commercial polyamide nanofilter. Each factor was considered in three levels where diazinon concentration, nitrate concentration and solution pH were in the range of 10–1,000 μg/L, 40–160 mg/L and 5–9, respectively. The experiments were conducted at constant pressure of 6 bar. The response surface method was adopted in the experimental design to obtain the impact of mentioned factors. It was found that increasing diazinon concentration and pH enhance the pesticide removal efficiency up to 94%, while increasing nitrate concentration increases the commercial nanofilter efficiency from 80 to 85%. The diazinon removal percentage at optimum condition was estimated to be about 93% at diazinon concentration of about 90 μg/L, nitrate concentration of about 80 mg/L and pH of 9.