A New and Successful Utilization of Egyptalum Company Solid Waste in Adsorptive Removal of Nitrates from Water Supplies
S. El-Nahas *
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt
H. M. A. Salman
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt
W. A. M. Seleem
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This work demonstrates the successful utilization of the Egyptalum company solid waste (slag) for recovery of high-efficiency γ-alumina to be applied as an effective adsorption medium for nitrate uptake from its aqueous solutions. The composite of the sorbent was characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, PZC, and BET surface area (SBET). The new sorbent has high surface area, it was found to be 202.39 m2/ g).Also, the adsorptive capacity for nitrate removal was investigated bya series of batch adsorption experiments,and theinfluence of the adsorption controlling parameters such as contact time, adsorbent dosage, pH of the solution, initial concentration of nitrates, and temperature on the removal efficiency of NO3-by alumina from AlSW was evaluated.Furthermore, adsorption isotherms and kinetic studies of the adsorption process were examined. The results of nitrate adsorption were well fitted by pseudo-second order kinetic model, and well explained by Langmuir isotherm model.The maximum adsorption capacity as described from the Langmuir equation was found to be 7.09 mg/ g.
Keywords: Nitrate removal, adsorption, alumina, solid waste, isotherm