Cyanide uptake from wastewater by modified natrolite zeolite-iron oxyhydroxide system: application of isotherm and kinetic models.

A method for the removal of cyanides from wastewater is described. The method involves the adsorption of cyanides by a modified natural zeolite (natrolite) using batch technique. A new iron oxyhydroxide-natrolite system was used in this study. A combination of XRD, XRF and FTIR spectroscopies, as well as TG/DSC thermal analyses was used for characterization of zeolitic materials. Effects of parameters such as pH, amount of adsorbent and contact time on the cyanide removing yield are studied. It was observed that the yield increases by increasing dosage of adsorbent and contact time at a fixed pH 7.5. A yield of 82% was achieved at optimum conditions for removing cyanide from industrial wastewaters. The experimental data obtained for optimum conditions were selected for modeling the adsorption behavior of the materials using six isotherm equations (Freundlich, Langmuir, Langmuir-Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Redlich-Peterson and Toth). The obtained modeling results indicated that, although the three-parameter models, taking into account the surface heterogeneity, provided the closest approach to the measurement data, the parameters estimates could be highly biased. The kinetic studies proved that the second-order kinetic was the applicable model.