Investigation of nitrate element removal by nanostructure adsorbents in continuous adsorption system

Nitrate is one of the major pollutants in water resources. The limitation of water resources and the increase of surface and groundwater pollution by nitrate ions necessitates finding acceptable environmental solutions to remove this material from water sources. For practical applications, the absorbent should be of high capacity, low cost and easy to use. In this research, the effect of egg shell, rice husk, straw and wheat straw and oak leaves on nitrate ion removal from aqueous solution was investigated by continuous adsorption system. In continuous experiments using simulated water, the effect of changes in the concentration of nitrate entering the column was evaluated to increase the efficiency of the adsorption column and the application of continuous adsorption models was described in describing the failure curves. The results of continuous experiments showed that the total amount of nitrate absorbed and the column adsorption capacity increased with increasing concentration of nitrate entering the column and the Thomas model was more consistent with experimental data. Based on the results of this study, egg shell, rice husk, wheat straw, and oak leaves have high removal potential of nitrate ions.