Column adsorption of biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon from wastewater by magnetite nanoparticles-zeolite A composite

Abdulsalami Sanni Kovo; Sherifat Alaya-Ibrahim; Ambali Saka Abdulkareem; Olalekan David Adeniyi; Titus Chinedu Egbosiuba; Jimoh Oladejo Tijani; Mustapha Saheed; Blessing Onyinye Okafor; Yusuff Sikiru Adeyinka

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13095

Column adsorption of biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon from wastewater by magnetite nanoparticles-zeolite A composite

Heliyon. 2023 Jan 24;9(2):e13095. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13095. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of Technology, PMB 65, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.
² Nanotechnology Research Group, African Centre for Excellence on Mycotoxin, Federal University of Technology, PMB 65, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.
³ Chemical Engineering Department, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, PMB 02, Uli Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Federal University of Technology, Minna, PMB 65, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.
⁵ Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

Abstract

Herein, magnetite nanoparticles (NPs), zeolite A and magnetite-zeolite A (MAGZA) composite was developed by green methods. The produced nanomaterials were characterized and the effect of process parameters such as flow rate, adsorbent bed height and adsorbate inlet concentration was evaluated for the removal of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) in a column. The characterization results demonstrated the successful synthesis of magnetite NPs, zeolite A and MAGZA composite. The performance of the MAGZA composite in the fixed-bed column was superior to zeolite A and magnetite NPs. The parametric influence indicates that an increase in bed height and a decrease in the flow rate and inlet adsorbate concentration improved the performance of the adsorption column. The adsorption column demonstrated maximum performance at a flow rate (4 mL/min), bed height (5 cm) and inlet adsorbate concentration (10 mg/L). Under these conditions, the highest percent removal of BOD, COD and TOC were 99.96, 99.88 and 99.87%. Thomas and Yoon-Nelson's model suitably fitted the breakthrough curves. After five reusability cycles, the MAGZA composite demonstrated removal percent of BOD (76.5%), COD (55.5%) and TOC (64.2%). The produced MAGZA composite effectively removed BOD, COD and TOC from textile wastewater in a continuous operating mode.

Keywords: Biological oxygen demand; Chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon; Column studies; Magnetite nanoparticles; Textile wastewater; Zeolite A.