Otero, M.; Freire, L.; Gómez-Cuervo, S.; Ávila, C. Ammonium Removal in Wastewater Treatments by Adsorbent Geopolymer Material with Granite Wastes: Full-Scale Validation. Clean Technol.2024, 6, 339-364.
Otero, M.; Freire, L.; Gómez-Cuervo, S.; Ávila, C. Ammonium Removal in Wastewater Treatments by Adsorbent Geopolymer Material with Granite Wastes: Full-Scale Validation. Clean Technol. 2024, 6, 339-364.
Otero, M.; Freire, L.; Gómez-Cuervo, S.; Ávila, C. Ammonium Removal in Wastewater Treatments by Adsorbent Geopolymer Material with Granite Wastes: Full-Scale Validation. Clean Technol.2024, 6, 339-364.
Otero, M.; Freire, L.; Gómez-Cuervo, S.; Ávila, C. Ammonium Removal in Wastewater Treatments by Adsorbent Geopolymer Material with Granite Wastes: Full-Scale Validation. Clean Technol. 2024, 6, 339-364.
Abstract
Elevated ammonium (NH4+) concentrations in untreated waterways contribute to eutrophication and dissolved oxygen depletion, which cause severe degradation of water quality. Ion exchange processes are a robust, low operational cost and efficient option for ammonium removal with zeolites being the most widely used. Geopolymers are a sustainable and low-cost option compared to zeolites that follows the same ion exchange technology. In the present study, a metakaolin-based porous geopolymer was synthetized, characterised and validated as adsorbent material. The laboratory batch tests showed a maximum adsorption capacity (Qm) of 18.35 mg/g being 27% higher than reference zeolites. Kinetics followed the Weber-Morris rate equation being the intraparticle diffusion the limiting process and continuous experiments indicated a maximum removal of 97% in the first hours. The material was validated in a wastewater treatment pilot plant where values in pH, electrical conductivity and NH4+ concentration were monitored. The obtained data indicated that the material achieved up to 80% NH4+ removal which is similar to traditional zeolites. The results demonstrate that this sustainable, low-cost and easy-to-install metakaolin-based geopolymer can be used effectively for NH4+ treatment.
Chemistry and Materials Science, Chemical Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
