Review
Natural zeolites as effective adsorbents in water and wastewater treatment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2009.10.029Get rights and content

Abstract

Natural zeolites are abundant and low cost resources, which are crystalline hydrated aluminosilicates with a framework structure containing pores occupied by water, alkali and alkaline earth cations. Due to their high cation-exchange ability as well as to the molecular sieve properties, natural zeolites have been widely used as adsorbents in separation and purification processes in the past decades. In this paper, we review the recent development of natural zeolites as adsorbents in water and wastewater treatment. The properties and modification of natural zeolite are discussed. Various natural zeolites around the world have shown varying ion-exchange capacity for cations such as ammonium and heavy metal ions. Some zeolites also show adsorption of anions and organics from aqueous solution. Modification of natural zeolites can be done in several methods such as acid treatment, ion exchange, and surfactant functionalisation, making the modified zeolites achieving higher adsorption capacity for organics and anions.

Introduction

Nowadays, the world is facing water crisis due to lacking of clean drinking water. With the fast development of various industries, a huge quantity of wastewater has been produced from industrial processes and was discharged into soils and water systems. Wastewater usually contains many pollutants such as cationic and anionic ions, oil and organics, which have poisonous and toxic effects on ecosystems. Removal of these contaminants requires cost effective technologies and a variety of techniques have been developed in the past decades in dealing with wastewater treatment. Currently, adsorption is believed to be a simple and effective technique for water and wastewater treatment and the success of the technique largely depends on the development of an efficient adsorbent. Activated carbon [1], clay minerals [2], [3], biomaterials [4], zeolites [5], [6], and some industrial solid wastes [7], [8] have been widely used as adsorbents for adsorption of ions and organics in wastewater treatment.

Since the original discovery of zeolitic minerals in a volcanogenic sedimentary rock, zeolitic tuffs have been found in many areas of the world. In the past decades, natural zeolites have found a variety of applications in adsorption, catalysis, building industry, agriculture, soil remediation, and energy [9], [10]. It has been estimated that the world natural zeolite consumption is 3.98 Mt and will reach 5.5 Mt in 2010 [11].

Natural zeolites are hydrated aluminosilicate minerals of a porous structure with valuable physicochemical properties, such as cation exchange, molecular sieving, catalysis and sorption. The use of natural zeolites for environmental applications is gaining new research interests mainly due to their properties and significant worldwide occurrence. Application of natural zeolites for water and wastewater treatment has been realised and is still a promising technique in environmental cleaning processes. In the past decades, utilisation of natural zeolites has been focussed on ammonium and heavy metal removal due to the nature of ion exchange and some review papers have been appeared [6], [12], [13]. Apart from the presence of cations in water, anions and organic compounds are widely presented in wastewater. In recent years, natural zeolite and its modified forms have also been reported for removal of anions and organics from water systems. However, no such a review has been found. In this paper, we will update the recent research in cation adsorption using natural zeolites as well as their modified forms for removal of anions and organic compounds in water and wastewater treatment.

Section snippets

Properties of natural zeolite

There are many natural zeolites identified in the world. Clinoptilolite, mordenite, phillipsite, chabazite, stilbite, analcime and laumontite are very common forms whereas offretite, paulingite, barrerite and mazzite, are much rarer. Among the zeolites, clinoptilolite is the most abundant natural zeolite and is widely used in the world. In zeolite structure, three relatively independent components are found: the aluminosilicate framework, exchangeable cations, and zeolitic water. The general

Modification of natural zeolite

The adsorption characteristics of any zeolite are dependent upon the detailed chemical/structural makeup of the adsorbent. The Si/Al ratio, cation type, number and location are particularly influential in adsorption. These properties can be changed by several chemical treatments to improve separation efficiency of raw natural zeolite. Acid/base treatment and surfactant impregnation by ion exchange are commonly employed to change the hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties for adsorption of various

Application for water treatment

Surface water, ground water, and industrial or household wastewater contains many different types of pollutants. These pollutants include inorganic and organic compounds and are more or less hazardous to human being, animals and plants. In the following sections, more recent applications of natural zeolites and their modified forms for removal of various pollutants from water are discussed in detail.

Conclusion and future perspectives

Natural zeolites are important low cost materials for water and wastewater treatment. Due to the nature of cation exchange, natural zeolites exhibit high performance in adsorption of cations in aqueous solution such as ammonium and heavy metals. However, zeolites show varying ion selectivity and competitive adsorption for a multi-component system. In addition, these materials are not good adsorbents for adsorption of anionic ions and organics. Surface modification using cationic surfactant can

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