Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (6): 795-802.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2021.0810

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Adsorption of Ammonia Nitrogen from Rare Earth Wastewater by NaCl Modified Zeolite and Its Mechanism

WANG Yu-rong1,2, ZHOU Zhi-gao1, DING Chang-feng1, ZHANG Tao-lin1, WANG Xing-xiang1,2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation/Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2021-12-25 Published:2023-06-19

Abstract: Development of high-performance adsorption materials and effective treatment of ammonia nitrogen in acid wastewater is crucial to the eco-environment conservation of ion-absorbed rare earth mine area. The NaCl modified natural zeolite (NZ-NaCl) was prepared by impregnation method, and the effects of modified conditions on adsorption of ammonia nitrogen were investigated. The structural characteristics of zeolite before and after modification were determined by BET, SEM-EDS, XRF and FTIR. The results show that NaCl modified zeolite improved the adsorption performance of zeolite for ammonia nitrogen. The zeolite modified by 1 mol·L-1 NaCl at room temperature and the solid to liquid ratio of 1∶5, the equilibrium adsorption capacity of NZ-NaCl reached to 11.12 mg·g-1, which was 2.62 times that of natural zeolite. In the actual application of wastewater in ion-absorbed rare earth mine area, the removal rates of ammonia nitrogen, rare earth elements, Pb and Cd were 100%, 96.2%, 99.8% and 47.0%, respectively, when the dosage of NZ-NaCl was 0.02 g·mL-1. The improvement of adsorption capacity was related to the increase in the specific surface area, exposure of internal lamellar structure and pores, and the occurrence of columnar nanofibers. The modification reduced the steric hindrance of ammonia nitrogen adsorption, accelerated the internal diffusion, released more NH4+ adsorption sites, due to the replacement of other cations in internal zeolite by sodium, and then improved the adsorption performance of NZ-NaCl for ammonia nitrogen. In addition, NZ-NaCl had more binding forms to removal ammonia nitrogen by adsorption than that of natural zeolite. The results could be an important guideline to the further development of high-performance adsorption materials and to the effective removal of ammonia nitrogen in acid wastewater of ion-absorbed rare earth mine area.

Key words: zeolite, NaCl, modified, ammonia nitrogen, adsorption mechanism, structural characterization

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