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Oil removal from water is a highly important area due to the large production rate of emulsified oil in water, which is considered one of the major pollutants, having a negative effect on human health, environment and wildlife. In this study, we have reported the application of high quality carbon nanotube bundles produced by an injected vertical chemical vapor deposition (IV-CVD) reactor for oil removal. High quality, bundles, super hydrophobic, and high aspect ratio carbon nanotubes were produced. The average diameters of the produced CNTs ranged from 20 to 50 nm while their lengths ranged from 300 to 500 μm. Two types of CNTs namely, P-CNTs and C-CNTs, (Produced CNTs from the IV-CVD reactor and commercial CNTs) were used for oil removal from water. For the first time, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted to measure maximum oil uptake using CNT and it was found that P-CNT can take oil up to 17 times their weight. The effect of adsorbent dosage, contact time, and agitation speed were examined on the oil spill clean-up efficiency using batch sorption experiments. Higher efficiency with almost 97% removal was achieved using P-CNTs compared to 87% removal using C-CNTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rates of adsorption of cadmium, copper and zinc ions onto bone char have been studied in three single component systems using an agitated batch adsorber. The effects of initial metal ion solution concentration and bone char mass have been studied. The capacities of the three metals on bone char are 0.477, 0.709 and 0.505 mmolg−1 for cadmium, copper and zinc respectively which are much higher than most other adsorbents reported in the literature for these three metals. In order to model the experimental concentration decay curves, a film-surface diffusion equation proposed by Crank (1979) has been solved. The model results correlate the experimental better than a previously applied film-pore diffusion model. However, the results indicate that the surface diffusion coefficient was a variable function of initial metal ion concentration. The surface diffusivities vary from 3.00×10−9 to 8.80×10−9 cm2 s−1, 2.11×10−9 cm2 s−1 to 5.4×10−9 cm2 s−1 and 3.10×10−9 to 8.49×10−9 cm2 s−1 for cadmium, copper and zinc respectively, for metal ion solution concentrations of 2.10–5.40 mmoldm−3. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The ability of bone char to adsorb three metal ions, namely, copper(II), zinc(II) and cadmium(II) ions from wastewater has been studied. Three single-component equilibrium systems and three binary equilibrium systems have been measured experimentally. The three single-component equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir and the Sips equilibrium isotherm equations. The Sips isotherm gave a better fit of the experimental data than the Langmuir isotherm based on the sum of squares errors (SSE) analysis. The Cu–Zn, Cu–Cd and Cd–Zn binary equilibrium experimental data were examined by incorporating the Langmuir and the Sips isotherm equations into the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST). The solution methods and the predicted results for the three binary systems at different metal ion compositions have been evaluated. In addition, the application of the IAST to the model prediction for the fixed bed system is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]