The use of foam glass (granular) in urban surface water treatment

Abstract

Introduction. When purifying natural objects from heavy metals a decisive role is played by sorption technologies, for the development of which new kinds of sorbents are required. The aim of the study is to evaluate the sorption capacity of granulated foam glass in the treatment of surface wastewater (SW) from urbanized areas from heavy metals (on the example of Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn). Materials and methods. Granulated foam glass was used as a sorbent. The sorbate was urban surface wastewater from the city of Chelyabinsk. The interaction in the sorbent-sorbate system was studied in laboratory conditions by the limited volume method of static sorption when the pollutants were in the liquid phase and brought into contact with a stationary sorbent. The contact time of the sorbent with the sorbate was varied from 3 to 168 hours and the ambient temperature from 0 to 20 °C. The structure and surface composition of the sorbents were studied using a JEOL JSM-6460LV scanning electron microscope with an attachment for micro X-ray spectral analysis. Changes in the sorbate composition during interaction with the sorbents were determined by atomic emission spectrometry on an OPTIMA 2100 DV spectrometer (Perkin Elmer). Hydrogen index was determined on a pH-meter microprocessor рН-150МИ. Results. The structure and surface composition of granulated cellular glass has been studied. The efficiency of sorption of granulated foam glass of heavy metals from urban surface wastewater has been revealed. Conclusions. The results show that the investigated granulated foam glass is an effective sorption material and allows the extraction of heavy metals (cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, nickel, lead, zinc) from urban surface wastewater.