Abstract
Tertiary and advanced treatment for wastewater effluents introduces a powerful solution for reusing this water and overcoming the water shortage problem. In this work, the natural zeolite rock (NZR) is examined as an adsorbent for tertiary treatment of the secondary treated wastewater effluent. The research relies on an experimental program in a laboratory scale, and many parameters were investigated including the material size and pretreated processes for the rock samples. The pretreated processes included prewashing, socking, drying, and thermal treatment. The chemical analysis for wastewater samples was carried out before and after adding rocks. Furthermore, microstructural investigations by SEM and XRF techniques were adopted for rock samples before and after contact with wastewater. Results showed notable impacts for thermally treated samples in removing nitrite as the removal reached about 96%. Using NZR with wastewater demonstrated a slight reduction in BOD and COD values compared to the original wastewater sample. The SEM and XRF results showed the capability of NZR to exchange the cations with water, which makes NZR a promising material for purify the wastewater especially after applying thermal treatment.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Deputyship for Research and Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia for funding this research work through the project number (20/8). This work was also supported by Deanship of Research at the Islamic University of Madinah. The authors extend their appreciation to all the associated personnel that have contributed to this study, especially Wastewater Treatment Plant of Al Madinah for proving wastewater samples.
Funding
This work is funded by the Deputyship of Research & Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, through the project number [20/8].
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Conceptualization was done by A.A.; methodology was done by A.A. and H.A.; formal analysis was carried out by A.A.; investigation was carried out by A.A.; resources were done by A.A.; data curation was done by A.A. and H.A.; writing original draft preparation was done by A.A.; review and editing were performed by H.A.; visualization was done by A.A.; supervision was done by A.A.; project administration was done by A.A.; and funding acquisition was done by A.A.
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Editorial responsibility: Maryam Shabani.
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Ahmed, A.T., Almohamadi, H. Chemical and microstructural studies for using natural zeolite in advanced wastewater treatment. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 6491–6498 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04384-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04384-5