During the extraction of bitumen from the Alberta oil sands, a wide range ofcontaminants are concentrated in oil sands process-affected water (OSPW), among which isa family of organic carboxylic acids known collectively as naphthenic acids (NAs). NAshave shown to be both corrosive toward process equipment and acutely toxic toward anumber of aquatic organisms. Therefore, for oil sands producers to either recycle OSPW orreintroduce it back into the environment, the concentration of NAs must be reduced toacceptable levels. Adsorption is one technique that has been investigated for their removal.This thesis reports on the removal of a model aromatic NA from aqueous solution usingsustainable quaternized chitosan hydrogel adsorbents. Using optimized processingconditions to prepare the adsorbent material, an adsorption efficiency of 315 mg g-1 wasobserved. The kinetic and equilibrium adsorption characteristics were investigated byperforming several batch adsorption experiments under a range of conditions. To improvethe compressive strength of the hydrogel, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and quaternizedcellulose nanocrystals (QCNC) were incorporated into the adsorbent formulation.Improvements in compressive strength of up to 179% were observed. However, thisimprovement was coupled with reductions in the efficiency of model NA adsorption. Tothe best of our knowledge, this work is one of very few studies to investigate the adsorptionof NAs using polymeric resins and is the first to report the use of biopolymer basedhydrogels and nanocomposite hydrogels for this application. When compared to otheradsorbent materials reported in the literature, the adsorption efficiency of the presentlyreported material was on par if not superior.
【 预 览 】
附件列表
Files
Size
Format
View
The design and optimization of sustainable biopolymer-based adsorbents for the removal of a model aromatic naphthenic acid from aqueous solution
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
