Removal of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) from water by polymer–zeolite composites

Increases in environmental pollutants led to use of natural low cost materials such as zeolite, which prove their effective in water treatment. Natural zeolite obtained from Jabal Hannoun (local) and imported zeolites, clinoptilolite-rich tuff obtained from U.S.A, Syrian zeolitic tuff, and synthetic faujasite-13X were used as adsorbent. Characterization of raw and modified zeolite has been studied to verify their physical chemical and mineralogical properties, in order to note any changes occur during the modification of zeolite. The feasibility of using surfactant-modified zeolite to remove aniline and its derivatives from water in the broad band of concentrations (5-200 mg L-1) was evaluated by batch experiments. The results showed that a significant increase in aniline and its derivatives sorption capacity could be achieved at the loading level of hexadecyltrimethylammonium, a cationic surfactant, on zeolite surfaces at monolayer coverage. Adsorption equilibrium was carried out at different initial concentrations and different pH varies from 3 to 11. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were applied to the experimental data. The data best fitted the Freundlich model. It was found that the aniline removal efficiency by using clinoptilolite-rich tuff has the highest maximum adsorption 50% compared to the other zeolite. The maximum efficiency removal for N-Methylaniline reached upto 69.5% by using Syrian-zeolite. A decrease in N,N-Dimethylaniline removal by surfactant-modified zeolite, and the maximum efficiency removal was 16% by using Jordanian-Faujasite. The results show that the optimum pH of the adsorption of aniline and its derivatives by surfactant-modified zeolite was almost in acidic and neutral pH conditions. Characterization of raw and surfactant-modified zeolite was carried out using several techniques such as cation exchange capacity, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. UV/VIS spectrophotometer was used in equilibrium analysis.

CLEAN - Soil, Air, Water, 2011

In this paper, a novel adsorbent developed by means of granulating of natural zeolite nanoparticles (i.e., clinoptilolite) was evaluated for possible removal of the petroleum monoaromatics (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, BTEX). To do this, the natural zeolite was ground to produce nanosized particulate, then modified by two cationic surfactants and granulated. The effect of various parameters including temperature, initial pH of the solution, total dissolved solids (TDS), and concentration of a competitive substance (i.e., methyl tert-butyl ether, MTBE) were studied and optimized using a Taguchi statistical approach. The results ascertained that initial pH of the solution was the most effective parameter. However, the low pH (acidic) was favorable for BTEX adsorption onto the developed adsorbents. In this study, the experimental parameters were optimized and the best adsorption condition by determination of effective factors was chosen. Based on the S/N ratio, the optimized conditions for BTEX removal were temperature of 408C, initial pH of 3, TDS of 0 mg/L, and MTBE concentration of 100 mg/L. At the optimized conditions, the uptake of each BTEX compounds reached to more than 1.5 mg/g of adsorbents.

Journal of Environmental Management, 2019

This work aims to investigate the potential of Jordanian raw zeolitic tuff (RZT) as oil adsorbent for oil-contaminated water. As hydrophobic properties are the primary determinants of effective oil adsorbents, the hydrophobicity of RZT was enhanced by dealumination process; since the degree of hydrophobicity of zeolites is directly dependent on their aluminum content. The microemulsion modification of the dealuminated zeolitic tuff (TZT) was also applied to increase its hydrophobicity. The raw and modified tuffs were characterized in terms of the surface area and porosity (BET), mineral composition (XRD), microstructure and morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In this work, a mixture of water and kerosene was used to examine the hydrophobic/organophilic character of raw and modified zeolitic tuff. Water/dodecane and water/octane mixtures were used to study the kinetics of the adsorption over zeolitic tuff. The results revealed that the sorption capacity using kerosene as a mixed model (water-oil) was enhanced by three-and four-fold for TZT and micro-emulsified zeolitic (MeTZT) tuff respectively. The adsorption capacity of modified zeolitic was compared with that of activated carbon adsorbents.

Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2007

We report the results of laboratory-scale evaluation of a produced-water treatment system. The system used surfactant-modified zeolite (SMZ) to strip the volatile organic compounds benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and p-, m-and o-xylene (BTEX) from produced water generated as a byproduct of oil and gas recovery. We used laboratory column studies to (1) investigate how different airflow rates impact regeneration of BTEX-saturated SMZ and (2) perform long-term tests to determine the chemical and physical stability of SMZ in a produced-water treatment system.

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AND LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT

An experimental investigation on the removal of petroleum products (PP) from wastewater by natural sorbent zeolite was carried out in a laboratory on a pilot‐scaled test bench. The pilot test bench consisted of: a tank in which gasoline (1 portion) and diesel (1 portion) were mixed mechanically with water; a pump for supplying the mixture to a filter model; a filter model filled with a zeolite layer of 0,2 m height. Zeolite used in this study was from a deposit near the village of Sokyrnytsa in the Ukrainian Transcarpathian region. The test zeolite particle size was 2,5–3,0 mm; 1,5–2,0 mm; 0,63–1,0 mm. The concentration of PP in water was measured before and after the filter every hour. The TOG/ TPH analyser was used for concentration measurements. The experimental study showed that the best adsorption results were reached in the filter with 0,63–1,0 mm particle size of zeolite media. There were 2,25 mg/1 of light hydrocarbons left in the filtrate. Such a concentration satisfies the...

Water, Air, & Soil …, 2010

2000

We tested the effectiveness of surfactant-modified zeolite (SMZ) for removal of BTEX with batch and column experiments using waters with BTEX concentrations that are comparable to those of produced waters. The data from our experimental investigations showed that BTEX sorption to SMZ can be described by a linear isotherm model, and competitive effects between compounds were not significant. The SMZ

Separation & Purification Reviews, 2016

The widespread use of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline oxygenate additive has resulted in presence of MTBE in the environment. This compound is considered as one of the main components of water pollutant. Adsorption has received a lot of attention for removal of MTBE from water. This review paper summarizes the results of adsorption feasibility of different adsorbent for elimination of MTBE from aqueous solutions. It also discusses the major research topics related to MTBE removal by widely used adsorbents namely, granular activated carbon, minerals, resins and composites. Better understanding of these adsorbents and their affinity toward MTBE adsorption can help future research to be properly oriented to address A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2 knowledge gaps in this area. This review provides an opportunity for researchers to explore better the removal functionality of MTBE by adsorption methods.

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Chemia

This study was carried out with the aim of increasing and determining the activated zeolites' adsorption capacity by testing their efficiency on petroleum hydrocarbons. Natural zeolite samples were sequentially studied after thermal and chemical activations. The results indicated that after the activations, the zeolite samples gained an increasing adsorption capacity of petroleum hydrocarbons. Furthermore, the zeolites with small particulate sizes (<10 µm) have a higher adsorption capacity than the zeolites with a granulometry of 1-3 mm. The metal content ranged between 4200-7400 mg/kg Na, 15090-22990 mg/kg Ca, 2670-3950 mg/kg Mg, 19470-19670 mg/kg K, 6140-7210 mg/kg Fe and 149-178 mg/kg Mn. Mineralogical analyzes (X-ray diffraction-XRD and scanning electron microscopy-SEM) were applied for the characterization of the zeolites. According to the XRD results, the zeolites are characterized by a 64 % crystallization level. The main mineral which was determined was Clinoptilolite-Ca. The SEM micrographs indicate the morphology of zeolite surfaces.