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Possibility of removing cadmium pollution from the environment using a newly synthesized material coal fly ash

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Abstract

Coal fly ash (FA) is a solid waste produced in coal combustion. This study focused on the removal of Cd2+ from wastewater by a newly synthesized adsorbent material, the low-temperature and sodium hydroxide–modified fly ash (SHM-FA). The SEM and BET analyses of SHM-FA demonstrated that the adsorbent was porous and had a huge specific surface area. The XRF, XRD, FTIR and TGA characterization showed that SHM-FA has an amorphous structure and the Si–O and Al–O in the fly ash dissolved into the solution, which improved the adsorption capacity of Cd. The results indicated that SHM-FA has desired adsorption performance. The adsorption performance was significantly affected by the dosage, starting pH, Cd2+ initial concentrations, and temperature, as well as adsorption time. In the optimal conditions, the removal efficiency and adsorption capacity of Cd2+ by SHM-FA were 95.76% and 31.79 mg g−1, respectively. The experiment provided clearly explained adsorption kinetics and isotherms. And the results confirmed that the adsorption behavior was well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model, which means that the adsorption of Cd2+ was controlled by SHM-FA through surface reaction and external diffusion process. In addition, the recycling of SHM-FA for reuse after Cd2+ adsorption showed high removal efficiency up to six times of use. Therefore, it can be concluded that SHM-FA is a low-cost adsorbent for Cd2+ removal from wastewater.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Agriculture/Tianjin Key Laboratory of Agro-environment and Safe-product open fund project (Grant No. 17nybcdgj-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Hanghang Zhao, Xunrong Huang, Guibin Zhang, Jingtian Li & Puhui Ji

  2. Key Laboratory of Original Agro-Environmental Pollution Prevention and Control, Ministry of Agriculture/Tianjin Key Laboratory of Agro-environment and Safe-product, Tianjin, 300191, China

    Hanghang Zhao

  3. Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL, 34945, USA

    Zhenli He

  4. Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, Liaoning, China

    Puhui Ji

  5. Shenzhen ImMidas Environmental Technology Co., Ltd, Room 210, Chuangke Compound, 1018# Chaguang Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Junzhe Zhao

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  1. Hanghang Zhao
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Correspondence to Puhui Ji.

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Zhao, H., Huang, X., Zhang, G. et al. Possibility of removing cadmium pollution from the environment using a newly synthesized material coal fly ash. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 4997–5008 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07163-x

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