Adsorption of Nitrate from Ground Water using Indian Bentonite: Fixed Bed Column Study

Abstract

With the ultimate objective of developing an inorganic, naturally occurring, low-cost, alternative, sustainable and eco-friendly sorptive media for nitrate removal from drinking water, in the present work treated bentonite has been studied as adsorbent medium. The characterization of the adsorbent was done using FTIR, SEM+EDS, BET and XRF. It was observed that Acid Activated bentonite clay shows the potential of an effective adsorbent for the nitrate from aqueous solution. During column operations it was observed that time of breakthrough increases with the increase in bed height or EBCT. Also it was observed that the breakthrough time of the filter depends on the type of sand used for preparation of the sorption bed in column operation.