Abatement of cyanide and ammoniacal-N from coke-oven wastewater using natural adsorbents: A comparative study

Abstract

The present study aims at efficient abatement of pollutants from coke-oven wastewater using environment-friendly and low-cost adsorbents for a green world. The adsorbent used were native laterite soil (NLS), heat-treated laterite soil (HTLS), native shale (NS) and Heat-treated shale (HTS). One factor at a time (OFAT) approach was followed to determine the most effective condition based on the maximum removal. Heat-treated laterite soil and native shale were found most effective among their counterparts. Freundlich model was found best to analyze equilibrium data. The real coke-oven wastewater was collected and experiments were performed in batch mode. The percentage removal of cyanide (88.09% and 95.31%) and ammoniacal-N (87.28% and 92.12%) were found satisfactory when heat-treated laterite soil and native shale were used as adsorbents, respectively.