Kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic investigations of nitrite (NO2–) removal from water by anion exchange resins

This study presents the evaluation of a strong base (Purolite A200) and weak base (Purolite PFA847) polymeric anion exchange resins for nitrite removal. The different parameters on the removal of NO2– were investigated in batch sorption mode. Common isotherm models; Langmuir and Freundlich, were used in order to present a description of the equilibrium data. Experimental results showed that the equilibrium data tend to follow Freundlich isotherm model for weak base resin and Langmuir model for strong base resin. The sorption of NO2– on anion exchange resins was found to follow the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The values of thermodynamic parameters proved that ion exchange reaction of NO2– onto such resins are endothermic (ΔH > 0).