Kinetic Study of BTEX Removal Using Granulated Surfactant-Modified Natural Zeolites Nanoparticles

Abstract

Increasing release of organic pollutants to the environment has caused one of the largest world crises for water resources. Volatile organic compounds are toxic monoaromatic pollutants of soil and water. In this research, natural zeolite nanoparticles were produced mechanically by means of a milling technique, modified using two cationic surfactants of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride and n-cetyl pyridinium bromide and formed as granules using a novel technique already developed by our group. The granulated adsorbents were used to uptake benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) from contaminated water. Two intra-particle diffusion models (i.e., Weber and Morris and Vermeulen models) and three surface reaction models (i.e., pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and Elovich) were applied to evaluate the kinetics of adsorption and the best fitted model was chosen. Results of the adsorption kinetic evaluations were shown that uptake of granulated nanozeolites are higher than natural zeolites (in the order of four). Kinetic results revealed that the adsorption follows a pseudosecond order indicating existence of chemisorption in the studied conditions. It was noticed that the intraparticle diffusion is prevailing in the first stage of adsorption for a relatively short time (i.e., first 25 min).

Application of Mineral Sorbents for Removal of Petroleum Substances: A Review

“…Mineral and organo-mineral sorbents are proposed as the alternative to activated carbon or organic polymers. Most studies concern the sorption of BTEX as volatile petroleum derivatives representatives [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87]. In these papers, different organic compounds have been used for mineral surface functionalization, and the influences of pH, adsorbent dosage and initial concentration on sorption efficiency have been considered, together with the equilibrium and kinetics of sorption.…”

“…The authors have explored sorption capacities (q e , mg/g) of the adsorbents using standard batch technique and applied popular isotherm and kinetic models for the evaluation of possible sorption mechanisms. The concentrations of organic compounds were determined using chromatography methods such as GC-FID (Gas Chromatography coupled to a Flame Ionization Detector) [49,81,87], GC-MS (Gas Chromatograph coupled to a Mass Spectrometer) [57], HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) [80]. Table 2 summarizes the results obtained for BTEX and other organic compounds sorption on natural and modified minerals including kinetic and isotherm parameters of the best fitting.…”

“…Seifi et al [87] used clinoptilolite (Miyaneh, Iran) modified with HDTMA and CPB (n-cetyl piridinium bromide) for the sorption of BTEX compounds from multi-component solution. The clinoptilolite was in powder (590-840 µm) and granulated forms before modification (the granulation process is described in the paper).…”

Potential of granulated modified nanozeolites Y for MTBE removal from aqueous solutions: Kinetic and isotherm studies

“…In this step for the use of nanozeolite Y powder for the adsorption of MTBE, we used a novel shaping process developed by our group that named granulation 11, 15 . In this regard sodium alginate has been used as an external template and to increase the mechanical resistance of granules a binder material such as clay was added to nanozeolite powder.…”

“…Parameter 1/n is the heterogeneity factor that shows the adorability of the adsorption process. KF (mg/g(dm 3 /mg)1/n) is the Freundlich constant or adsorption coeffi cient 15 . For other materials it was found that the Freundlich kinetic is the best model of describing the kinetic data for MTBE removal from water 22 .…”