Low waste technology for the removal of nitrates from water

Abstract

As a rule, nitrates are present in all natural water bodies. Their increased concentrations are connected with the discharge of insufficiently treated wastewater from industrial and communal enterprises, agricultural and livestock complexes. Recent scientific publications concerning treatment methods for nitrates removal from natural water and wastewater were analyzed in order to create effective and low-waste technology for obtaining high quality water. It has been established that the ion exchange method is quite effective for removing nitrates from water. In the paper, the processes of ion exchange removal of nitrates from water on low-axis anionite in DOWEX Marathon WBA in Сl- form were investigated. During the sorption of nitrates with a concentration of 186, 205, 223 and 2200 mg/dm3, it was established that the full exchangeable dynamic capacity was 1.075, 1.103, and 1.195, 1.698 g-eq/dm3, respectively. To regenerate anionite, solutions of ammonia as well as potassium chloride, ammonium chloride and potassium carbonate were used in this work. The choice of potassium and ammonium compounds is due to the prospect of further use of regeneration solutions for the production of liquid fertilizers.

Keywords

• mineral fertilizers
• ion exchange
• nitrates
• low-waste technologies
• anionite