Removal of nitrate from JUST wastewater effluent: a case study

摘要

Eutrophication phenomena occurred at JUST constructed pond. The main reason of this eutrophication process is the wastewater effluent of the campus wastewater treatment plant. This is due high nitrate content of the water effluent. The objective of this project is to decrease the concentration of nitrate in the wastewater effluent of the campus wastewater treatment plant in an attempt to prevent the eutrophication process at the artificial pond. This is accomplished by use of adsorption process with newly developed adsorbents. Basically, two adsorbents were considered in this project, namely fly ash and banana peel. The effects of factors such as particle size, temperature and pH on adsorption process were investigated. From kinetic studies, equilibrium time was as short as 10min. It was observed that pH plays an important role in the nitrate adsorption process. It was also observed that fly ash is more effective than banana peel in bench scale to remove nitrate. Adsorption isotherms for fly ash and banana peel were fitted to both Freundlich and Langmuir models. Fly ash and banana peel have potential of being used as sorbents for removal of nitrate from wastewater effluent of JUST wastewater treatment plant.