Tailoring fly ash activated with bentonite as adsorbent for complex wastewater treatment

Abstract

Used as adsorbent, alkali fly ash represents a low cost solution for advanced wastewater treatment. The alkali treatment raises sustainability issues therefore, in this research we aim to replace alkali fly ash with washed fly ash (FAw). For improving the adsorption capacity of washed fly ash, bentonite powder (B) was added, as a natural adsorbent with a composition almost identical to the fly ash. The new adsorbent was characterized by AFM, XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDS and the surface energy was evaluated by contact angle measurements. For understanding the complex adsorption process on this mixed substrate, preliminary tests were developed on synthetic wastewaters containing a single pollutant system (heavy metal), binary (two-heavy metals) and ternary (dye and two heavy metals) systems. Experiments were done on synthetic wastewaters containing methylene blue, cadmium and copper, using FAw, B and their powder mixtures. The pseudo-second order kinetics could well model all the processes, indicating a good adsorbent material which can be used for the pollutants removal from wastewater. After adsorption the substrates loaded with pollutants, annealed at 500°C can be reused for padding in stone blocks.