Surfactant modified waste ash for the removal of chloro and nitro group substituted benzene from wastewater

Sadiya Mushtaq; Zaheer Aslam; Rizwan Ali; Umair Aslam; Sana Naseem; Muhammad Ashraf; Mustapha Mohammed Bello

doi:10.2166/wst.2022.324

Water Science and Technology (Oct 2022)

Surfactant modified waste ash for the removal of chloro and nitro group substituted benzene from wastewater

Sadiya Mushtaq,
Zaheer Aslam,
Rizwan Ali,
Umair Aslam,
Sana Naseem,
Muhammad Ashraf,
Mustapha Mohammed Bello

Affiliations

Sadiya Mushtaq: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Zaheer Aslam: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Rizwan Ali: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Umair Aslam: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Sana Naseem: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Muhammad Ashraf: Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Mustapha Mohammed Bello: Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, P.M.B 3011, Kano, Nigeria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2022.324
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 86, no. 8
pp. 1969 – 1980

Abstract

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A surfactant-modified coal fly ash was developed as a multifunctional adsorbent for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used to modify the surface of coal fly ash (CFA). The modified CFA was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface porosity analyzer, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results showed that loading CFA with SDS not only improved the functionality and surface morphology of the raw ash for the adsorption of organic pollutants, but also enhanced its thermal stability. The efficiency of the modified fly ash was tested in terms of removal of two non-polar organic pollutants namely chlorobenzene (CB) and nitrobenzene (NB) from aqueous phase. The maximum uptake capacity of chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene with SDS-modified coal fly ash (SCFA) was 225 mg/g and 90 mg/g, respectively. The kinetic analysis was done by controlled kinetic models, i.e., pseudo first and second order kinetic models. The results showed that adsorption of CB and NB onto SCFA followed a pseudo second order kinetic model. The adsorption of chlorobenzene was exothermic over the modified adsorbent while nitrobenzene showed an endothermic behavior. The isotherm analysis depicted the multilayer adsorption of both pollutants onto the surface of the surfactant modified adsorbent. This work has shown that surface modification using surfactants can be a viable option to enhance the adsorption capacity of fly ash for pollutants removal. HIGHLIGHTS An adsorbent was synthesized from waste fly ash for the abatement of pollutants from water.; Surface modifications of ash based adsorbent were analyzed through several characterization techniques.; Detailed parametric study is done to explore the adsorption behavior of nitro benzene and chlorobenzene pollutants.; Modification of ash with sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant proves to be beneficial and it enhances the uptake capacity manifold.;

Published in Water Science and Technology

ISSN: 0273-1223 (Print); 1996-9732 (Online)
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Website: https://iwaponline.com/wst

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