Removal of heavy metals in wastewater by using Zeolite nanoparticles

Parinaz Babaei¹

1) Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculity of Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran,

Publication : 6th International Conference on Civil, Architectural and Environmental Sciences - stockholm(6iccae.com)
Abstract :
In this study, the adsorption and the filtration processes were coupled by a zeolite nanoparticle impregnated polysulfone (PSf) membrane which was used to remove the lead and the nickel cations from synthetically prepared solutions. The results obtained from X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis indicated that the synthesized zeolite nanoparticles, using the conventional hydrothermal method, produced a pure NaX with ultrafine and uniform particles. The performance of the hybrid membrane was determined under dynamic conditions. The results also revealed that the sorption capacity, as well as the water hydraulic permeability of the membranes, could both be improved by simply tuning the membrane fabricating conditions such as evaporation period of the casting film and NaX loading. The maximum sorption capacity of the hybrid membrane for the lead and nickel ions was measured as 682 and 122 mg/g respectively at the end of 60 min of filtration, under 1 bar of transmembrane pressure. The coupling process suggested that membrane architecture could be efficiently used for treating metal solutions with low concentrations and transmembrane pressures.
Keywords : Adsorption Hybrid membrane metal removal Ultrafiltration Zeolite nanoparticles