Improving Quality of Water Using Natural Nano-Clay Composites: Isotherms Describing Water Purification Using Fe-Montmorillonite from Chelel, Kapchorwa in Uganda

Volume 3 - Issue 3

Mukasa Tebandeke IZ¹*, Karume I¹, Wasajja HZ² and Nankinga R²

Received:July 24, 2019;   Published:August 08, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/OAJESS.2019.02.000164

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Abstract

Pollution resulting from increased human activities is threatening Lake Victoria, its effects are characterized by high turbidity, pH, iron (II) concentration, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and eutrophication. The performance of Fe-montmorillonite as low cost adsorbent for purifying water was studied. The batch technique was used in which Murchison Bay (MB) water was mixed with varying amounts of clay and stirred at 80rpm for 10 minutes at ambient temperature; filtered through what man paper and the filtrate was used to determine residual COD, Fe, TN and TP. The optimum concentration of clay of 0.4gl-1 was observed to produce 73.5+2% fall in COD as microbes and organic waste was removed. The concentration of iron (II) fell from 3.7+0.3 to 2.5+ 0.2 predicting removal of heavy metal by the clays. The data accumulated was analyzed using Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherms. The isotherms best described the results because the R2 values were very high. The Langmuir constant KL related to adsorption capacity of clay varied from 0.436 to 12.996 for removal of ions of iron; 0.068 to 1.161 for nitrate ions; 0.365 to 1.7295 for phosphate ions and 0.912 to 0.989 for removal of COD reducing agents. The Freundlich exponential constant, n, characterizing energetic heterogeneity of the clay surface varied from 0.059 to 0.714 for removal of ions of iron; 0.997 to 1.083 adsorption and /or exchange of nitrate ions; 0.339 to 1.582 for removal of COD reducing agents. The Temkin constant BT varied from 6.1582 to 21.025 for the nitrate, from 2.64 to 43.42 for adsorption of iron and 26.24 to 65.38 for removal of COD reducing agents. So, Femontmorillonite can remove organic and inorganic pollutants from MB waters. There is need to investigate the effectiveness of acid- and alkali-leached clay on MB water as well as kinetic study on removal of impurities from the water.

Keywords:Pollution; isotherms; Freundlich constants; Langmuir constants; COD; Total phosphate

Abstract| Introduction| Preparation of Clays| Results and Discussion| Variation of Nitrate| Freundlich Isotherms| Conclusion| Recommendation| References|