Use of Agricultural Nano Adsorbents for Nitrate Removal from Aqueous Solutions

In this research the effect of Sugarcane straw and Phragmites australis anion exchanger nano adsorbents have been investigated for removal of nitrate from aqueous solutions. The effects of operating conditions such as pH, contact time, adsorbent loading, initial anion concentration, and the presence of competitive ions on the adsorption performances were examined. The results showed that the equilibrium time was 2 hours and the pH was 6. With pH of the solution varying from 2 to 10, the nitrate removal efficiency for sugarcane straw and Phragmites australis nano adsorbent increased up to maximum of 45% to 76% and 60% to 86% reached at pH 6. With an increase in the nitrate concentration from 5 to 120 mg/L, the removal efficiency decreased from 86% to 66% and 90% to 67% for sugarcane straw and Phragmites australis nano adsorbent,respectively. For Phragmites australis nano adsorbent, with an increase in the adsorbent dosage from 0.1 to 0.3 grams, the removal efficiency increased from 60% to 85%, but remained almost unchanged when adsorbent dosage ranged from 0.3 to 1grams. For sugarcane straw nano adsorbent as the adsorbent dosage increased from 0.1 to 0.5 grams, the removal efficiency of nitrate increased from 45% to 75%, but remained almost unchanged for the increase of 0.5 to 1 grams. Adsorption kinetics of nitrate ions could most successfully be described by Freundlich isotherm. This study indicated that sugarcane straw and Phragmites australis nano adsorbents could be used for the removal of nitrate ions in water treatment and Phragmites australis nano adsorbent has higher adsorption than sugarcane straw nano adsorbent for nitrate removal.