Removal of Nitrate from Aqueous Solutions by Starch Stabilized nano Zero-Valent Iron(nZVI)

Abstract

Background and Objective: Nitrate is one of the inorganic anions derived as a result of oxidation of elemental nitrogen. Urban and industrial wastewater, animal and vegetable waste products in large cities that have organic nitrogen are excreted along the soil. The primary risk of Nitrate in drinking water occurs when nitrate in the gastrointestinal tract switch to nitrite. Nitrite causes the oxidation of iron in hemoglobin of red blood cells, result in red blood cells could not carry the oxygen, a condition called methemoglobinemia. Therefore, achieving the new technologies for nitrate removal is necessary. Material and Methods: The present study was conducted at laboratory Scale in non-continuous batches. Stabilized adsorbent was produced through reducing Iron sulfate by sodium borohydride (NaBH4) in presence of Starch (0.2W %) as a stabilizer. At first, the effect of various parameters such as contact time (10-90min), pH (3-11), adsorbent dose (0.5-3 g/L) and initial concentration of arsenate (50-250 mg/L) were investigated on process efficiency. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm model equilibrium constant, were calculated. Residual nitrate were measured by using the DR5000 spectrophotometer. Results: The optimum values based on RSM for pH, absorbent dose, contact time, and initial concentration of nitrate were 5.87, 2.25 g/L, 55.7 min, and 110.35 mg/L respectively. Langmuir isotherm with R 2 = 0.9932 for nitrate was the best graph for the experimental data. The maximum amount of nitrate adsorption was 138.88mg/g. Conclusion: Stabilized absorbent due to have numerous absorption sites and Fe 0 as a reducing agent could have great potential in nitrate removal from water.