AbstractIn this paper, the gallium (III) ions’ adsorption onto protonated clinoptilolite (H-CLP) was investigated both in batch and fixed-bed column experiments. Regarding batch experiments, the influence of some parameters such as adsorbent dosage, size particle, and temperature was studied, determining that a dosage of 10 g/L for an initial pollutant concentration of 40 mg/L leads to a removal percentage over 85% regardless of particle size and temperature. On the other hand, adsorption of gallium onto H-CPL is an endothermic and spontaneous process in the studied temperature range, concluding that the maximum adsorption capacity was 16 mg/g for 60 °C. Concerning to the effect of the presence of other cations in solution, such as Na+, K+, or Ca2+, gallium adsorption capacity only drops by 20%, although the initial concentration of other cations in the solution is 50 times higher than gallium concentration. This means that clinoptilolite has a high affinity for gallium which can be very favorable for further selectivity tests. A crucial factor for this high selectivity could be the protonation of clinoptilolite which allows working without modifying the pH of the aqueous solution with acid. In the fixed-bed experiments, breakthrough curves were obtained, and the effect of operation variables was determined. A breakpoint value of 254 min for 64 g of adsorbent and flow rate of 9.0 mL/min (7.0 BV/h) were obtained, when treating a pollutant volume of 33 BV. Additionally, the breakthrough curves were fitted to different models to study the particle size effect, being the best fit corresponding to the Adams–Bohart model. This fact confirmed the influence of particle size on adsorption kinetics.
Graphical Abstract
Magnetic Fe3O4@Chitosan Carbon Microbeads: Removal of Doxycycline from Aqueous Solutions through a Fixed Bed via Sequential Adsorption and Heterogeneous Fenton-Like Regeneration