Removal of tartrazine from aqueous solutions by using a natural Fe-modified zeolite

JACOBO S.E.; BRAIAN MERLO; A.V.RUSSO

Conferencia; 2nd Latin American Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water Environment Systems (LA-SDEWES 2020),; 2020

The contamination of water due to dyes coming from different industries is the current problem all over the world and is a demanding environmental issue that needs to be addressed. Although adsorption is considered an effective, efficient, and economic method for water purification, degradation of organic pollutant like synthetic dyes from aqueous solutions in industrial wastewater has become increasingly significant during last decades by using advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Fenton process is an adequate method for the decolourization of the Tartrazine (T) as a result of N = N bond destruction with the addition of (OH?). The purpose of the present study is to evaluate a novel iron catalyst supported on a modified natural zeolite (NZ) for the removal of tartrazine from aqueous samples, through the Fenton like process at pH= 3. Adsorption and catalytic oxidation processes are discussed.Adsorption isotherms of tartrazine (T) on zeolite (NZ-A-Fe) were obtained from batch equilibration experiments at pH= 3, at 20 °C with different tartrazine aqueous concentrations (from 5 to 30 mg/L). Langmuir model analyzed the adsorption process and a maximum of 0.0476 mg T/g NZ-A-Fe was reported. Tartrazine decomposition was evaluated by measuring the absorbance with spectrophotometer UV-VISIBLE. The degradation through the oxidation process show that the rate constant increases with peroxide concentration up to 2 mM. Over this value the rate constant decreases due to the hydrogen peroxide scavenging effect upon HO° radicals. For the optimal hydrogen peroxide dose, colour removal was near 97%. The novelty of this work is the development of a supported catalyst to enhance the Fenton method through the design of filters for industrial applications.