Removal of Selenium from Refinery Effluent by Adsorbents

P, Anurag N. (2015) Removal of Selenium from Refinery Effluent by Adsorbents. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (MS dissertation of Anurag N P (10MS67)) Anurag_N_P_10MS67.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (757kB)

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation are to evaluate effective remediation methods for selenium removal using various adsorbents from contaminated simulated aqueous effluents prepared in laboratory and to optimize the reaction conditions for the selected adsorbent. Selenate and selenite are the selenium compounds which cause selenium contamination in refinery effluent. ɣ-alumina, ammonium ferrierite and activated charcoal were used for perform the adsorption experiments. The ɣ-alumina was selected for further studies after the preliminary screening experiments. The adsorption parameters like time of adsorption, effect of sulfate on adsorption and pH of adsorption for ɣ-alumina were optimized. Finally, the mechanism of adsorption was studied by plotting adsorption isotherms for selenate and selenite. The selenate and selenite adsorption on ɣ-alumina is a multilayer adsorption. And it was found that selenite adsorption is preferred over selenate adsorption on ɣ-alumina. Then, it was concluded that if the sulfate concentration can be reduced to less than 10 ppm, ɣ-alumina will be an appropriate method to remove selenium.

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