Column study of humic acid removal from water into surfactant granular zeolite

Abstract

In this study, natural zeolite (mordenite) was modified by using dimetliyldioctadecylammonium bromide (DDAB) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to afford surfactant modified granular zeolite (SMGZ) as adsorbent for humic acid (HA) removal. Column adsorption studies were carried out to examine the optimum conditions for the removal of HA by SMGZ. The optimum loading of surfactant was later utilized in characterization studies. The SMGZ were characterized by XRD. FTIR. BET specific surface area and FESEM. The removal of HA was performed in a fixed bed reactor. The effects of different experimental parameters such as DDAB loading levels, solution pH and HA solution flow rate were evaluated. Samples were collected and analyzed using UV. The results indicated that SMGZ showed great enhanced adsorption capacity of HA compared to natural granular zeolite due to the hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding. The equilibrium uptake (geq(exp)) of HA decreased with increasing, flow rate and granular size. Total removal percent (Y) of HA SMGZ was found to increase with increasing solution pH. influent concentration and bed depth.