Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Nowadays nitrate concentrations in surface water and especially in groundwater have increased in many locations in the world. Since nitrates cause many health and environmental concerns, increased nitrate concentrations in groundwater have led to rendered aquifers unusable as water sources. So, as the water demand is still increasing the throughout the world, decreasing the nitrate concentration in drinking water is imperative. Magnesium powder has been determined to be potentially useful for the removal of nitrate in the water environment. This research is aimed at subjecting the kinetics of nitrate chemical reduction by Mgo to an analysis of some factors affecting the chemical denitrification.
Materials and Methods: Nitrate concentrations determined in 220 nm using a spectrophotometer.To determine the performance of nitrate removal by Mg0 powder, double distilled water was used for preparation of reagents and simulation of contaminated water with nitrate.All experiments were triplicate and the averaged results were reported.
Results: Kinetics analysis from batch studies revealed that the denitrification reaction with Mgo powder appeared to be a first-order with respect to substrate and the observed reaction rate constant (kobs). The effects of mixing intensity on the denitrification rate suggest that the denitrification appears to be coupled with oxidative dissolution of magnesium through a largely mass transportlimited surface reaction. Also in the denitrification by Mgo determined that Mgo dose related with kobs ( R2>0/99 )S
Conclusion: In this research was determined that denitrification effectively by Mg0 powder can achieved in a wide range of concentrations under atmospheric conditions and without pH controlling within short reaction time. Denitrification rate was related to some parameters such as contact time, Mgo dosage, mixing rate and initial nitrate concentration.

Background and Objectives: Furfural is one of the toxic chemical compounds used in many industries such as petrochemical, food, paper products, pharmaceutical, etc., due to having some characteristics. Therefore, furfural could be found at different concentrations in the effluent from these industries and can enter the environment. Hence, the aim of this study was the assessment the efficiency of a low cost bentonite modified with cationic surfactant in the removal of furfural from aqueous solution.

Material and Methods: In this experimental study, bentonite was purchased from one of the Mines of Zanjan Province, Iran and then the efficiency of bentonite modified with the cationic surfactant CTAB (CTAB-Bent) was assessed in the adsorption of furfural from aqueous solution. Activated carbon (AC) was also purchased as commercial grade.

Results: Under optimum conditions, the removal efficiency of AC and CTAB-Bent was about 52 and 66%, respectively. For both adsorbents used in this study, the increase of contact time and sorbent dosage resulted in increasing the removal efficiency, but the removal efficiency was decreased with the increase of furfural initial concentrations. Regarding pH, the removal efficiency was the highest in relative acidic and neutral environment, (60 and 69% for AC and CTAB-Bent respectively). The kinetics studies revealed that the highest correlation coefficients were obtained for the pseudo-second order rate kinetic model. Adsorption data from both adsorbents was also fitted with Langmuir isotherm.  

Conclusion: It was found that modified bentonite with CTAB as a natural adsorbent could have better efficiencies compared with activated carbon in the furfural removal, although more contact times is needed.