Adsorption of Typical Organic Pollutants from Wastewater Using Inshas Incinerator Ash

Abstract

The extent to which the full surface area of Inshas incinerator ash (IIA) is utilized for the adsorption of a solute from aqueous solution in single-component systems and in a two-component system is described. Adsorption isotherms for phenol (P), m-cresol (m-Cr), p-cresol (p-Cr), 4–nitrophenol (4NP) and 2–nitrophenol (2NP) on to IIA have been determined. The data conform to the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. For the two-component system of phenol and m-cresol in water, it was clear that the driving force for competitive adsorption was mainly the enthalpy change, ΔH. It was also found that such competitive adsorption generally results in the mutual inhibition of the adsorptive capacity of each solute. The feasibility of using IIA for the removal of the aforementioned pollutants from water is discussed.