Pumice Characteristics and Their Utilization on the Synthesis of Mesoporous Minerals and on the Removal of Heavy Metals

Abstract

Wastewater treatment of some heavy metals was carried out by synthetic zeolite P1, which was prepared by alkaline hydrothermal treatment of the pumice. Both of the pumice raw materials and synthetic zeolite were investigated for their chemical phase composition, physical properties, and microstructure. The adsorption behavior of Na-zeolite P1 with respect to Co+2, Cu+2, Fe+2, and Cd+2 has been studied to be applied in the industrial wastewater treatment. Metal removal was investigated using synthetic solutions at different ions concentrations, time, and Na-P1 zeolite doses as well as constant temperature and pH. It is concluded that the optimum conditions for synthesis of highly active Na-P1 zeolite from natural pumice raw material are one molar NaOH concentration, temperature at 80°C, and one week as a crystallization time. In addition to the effect of time and zeolite dose as well as the ion concentration of the reaction efficiency for metals removals are recorded.