Adsorptive Removal of Parts per Million Level Selenate Using Iron-Coated GAC Adsorbents
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 10
Abstract
Selenate removal by adsorption using iron-coated granular activated carbons (Fe-GACs) is reported in this study. Adsorption kinetics and equilibrium experiments with initial selenium concentration of 1 mg/L were conducted under three different ionic strengths to study selenate adsorption behavior. Selenate adsorption reached equilibrium within 48 h with more than 85% of the equilibrium capacities being obtained within the first 6 h. High removal efficiency (i.e., ) was achieved for pH range of 2–5. Acid-base titration experiments showed point of zero charge at pH 7.5 for the tested Fe-GAC. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model characterized selenate adsorption kinetics well and the rate constant decreased with ionic strength. Adsorption capacity decreased significantly with increasing ionic strength, which was not observed in selenite adsorption with the same adsorbent. Competitive adsorption with other four oxyanions ( , , , and ) showed that selenate removal efficiency was reduced to various degrees in the presence of each individual anion. Competitive adsorption of binary adsorbates (selenite and selenate) showed a decreasing trend of selenite adsorption capacity with decreasing ionic strength, indicating stronger competition of selenate against selenite under the low ionic strengths. The Sheindorf-Rebuhn-Sheintuch multiadsorbate competitive adsorption model was applied to quantify the binary competitive adsorption between selenate and selenite.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a U.S. DOE grant (Grant No. DOEDOE/CR-19174-429182). The GAC samples were provided by Norit Americas Inc. (Marshall, Tex.).
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Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 10 • October 2010
Pages: 1089 - 1095
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 20, 2009
Accepted: Mar 15, 2010
Published online: Mar 17, 2010
Published in print: Oct 2010
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