Defluoridation of wastewaters using waste carbon slurry

Adsorption of fluoride on waste carbon slurry was investigated. Waste carbon slurry was obtained from fuel oil based generators of a fertilizer industry. The work involves batch experiments to investigate the effects of contact time, pH, temperature and adsorbent dose on the extent of adsorption by carbon slurry. The contact time and pH for maximum fluoride uptake were found 1h and 7.58, respectively. Maximum adsorption capacity (4.861 mg g(-1)) of fluoride on carbon slurry was observed at 15.00 mg L(-1) initial fluoride concentration using 1.0 g L(-1) adsorbent dose. Among four applied models, the experimental isotherm data were found to follow Langmuir equation more closely. Thermodynamically, adsorption was found endothermic with values 7.348 kJ mol(-1), -25.410 kJ mol(-1) and 0.109 kJ mol(-1)K(-1) for enthalpy, free energy and entropy, respectively showing the feasibility of adsorption process. From kinetic analysis, the adsorption was found to follow second-order mechanism with rate constant 49.637 gm g(-1)min(-1). The rate-controlling step of the adsorption was found pore diffusion controlled. In order to investigate the potential of this adsorbent on industrial scale, column and desorption experiments were carried out. The breakthrough capacity of column was calculated 4.155 mg g(-1) with at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min(-1). The proposed adsorbent has been used to remove fluoride from groundwater and wastewater. Desorption has been achieved under alkaline conditions (pH 11.6) from exhausted carbon slurry. The performance of carbon slurry was compared with many other reported adsorbent for fluoride removal and it was observed that proposed adsorbent is effective in terms of performance and cost especially.     

Removal of excess fluoride from water using waste residue from alum manufacturing process

The ability of waste residue, generated from alum manufacturing process, to remove fluoride ion from water has been investigated. Series of batch adsorption experiments were carried out to assess parameters that influence the adsorption process. The factors investigated include the effect of contact time, adsorbent dose, thermal pretreatment of the adsorbent, neutralization of the adsorbent, initial fluoride concentration, pH of the solution and effect of co-existing anions. Results showed that Adsorption of fluoride is fairly rapid in first 5min and thereafter increases slowly to reach the equilibrium in about 1h. The removal efficiency of fluoride was increased with adsorbent dosage. About 85% removal efficiency was obtained within 1h at an optimum adsorbent dose of 16g/L for initial fluoride concentration of 10mg/L. Heat treatment and surface neutralization of the adsorbent did not improve the fluoride removal capacity and efficiency. The amount of fluoride adsorbed increased with increasing initial fluoride concentration. The percentage of fluoride removal remains nearly constant within the pH range of 3-8. The adsorption data at ambient pH were well fitted to the Dubinin-Radushkevick (D-R) isotherm model with a capacity of 332.5mg/g of the adsorbent. The adsorption kinetic was found to follow a pseudo-second-order rate equation with an average rate constant of 2.25gmin(-1)mg(-1). The presence of bicarbonate at higher concentrations (100-500mg/L) decreased the fluoride removal efficiency while other anions (chloride, sulfate, phosphate and nitrate) have no significant effect within the concentration range tested. The overall result shows that the waste residue is efficient defluoridating material.