Evaluation of Loess Capability for Adsorption of Total Nitrogen (T-N) and Total Phosphorous (T-P) in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to explore the possibility of utilizing loess for the adsorption of total phosphorous (T-P) and total nitrogen (T-N) in water. Batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the influences of various factors like initial concentration, contact time and temperature on the adsorption of T-P and T-N. The adsorption data showed that loess is not effective for the adsorption of T-N. However, loess exhibited much higher adsorption capacity for T-P. At concentration of 1.0 mg L, approximately 97% of T-P adsorption was achieved by loess. The equilibrium data were fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model appeared to be the better-fitting model because it has higher R 2 compared with the pseudo-first-order and intra-particle kinetic model. The theoretical adsorption equilibrium q e,cal from pseudo-second-order kinetic model was relatively similar to the experimental adsorption equilibrium q e,exp . The thermodynamic parameters such as free energy ΔG, the enthalpy ΔH and the entropy ΔS were also calculated.