Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Geology

The potential of Syrian natural zeolite from three localities, namely; mukeihlat (MK), om ozon (OZ) and Jabal Alsis (JS) areas as a low cost material for the removal of Cd and Cu from synthetic metal solutions and surface water from Beni Suef governorate, as a case study, was assessed in this study. On reference to the maximum permissible limits quoted by the WHO and FAO, water resources in Beni Suef are polluted with respect to Al, Cd, Pb, Mn and Cu. The mineralogical and geochemical characterizations of the zeolite samples were carried out using standard methods, e.g., XRD, FTIR,XRF, CEC, SEM, and others. The identified zeolite species include phillipsite, analcime and chabazite with CEC 100-120 meq/100g. Batch adsorption, kinetic studies and equilibrium isotherms were used to investigate the efficiency of natural zeolite for the removal of heavy metals under different conditions. 0.1 g was chosen as the optimum dose of zeolite where 80-95% and 85-98% uptake of Cd and Cu, respectively was realized at equilibrium time 60 min. The adsorption kinetics of ions is best approximated by the pseudo-second-order model with high correlation coefficient, and Langmuir equation provides the best fit for the equilibrium data. Theree natural zeolites showed comparable removal efficiency of heavy metals from polluted surface water collected from Beni Suef, that ranged between; Cu 80-90%, Cd 88-90%, Pb 92%, Fe 86-96%, Mn 60-92%, Al 70-97%, Ba 60-92% and Zn 70-98%. Consequently, the three natural Syrian zeolite samples can be effectively used for treatment of polluted water in semi- arid countries like Egypt due to the high performance and removal capacity in addition to its availability and low cost

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