oa Organic Pollutants Removal from Wastewater in Rubizhne City, Ukraine

A significant excess of the permissible concentrations limit of nitro- and amino products, phenols, mineral salts at the surface and underground waters near the Rubizhne city was determined. It is related with the tailings of the aniline enterprise «Rubizhansky Krasitel». The sorption method was proposed for the removal organic dyes from «Rubizhansky» waste collector wastewater. For this purpose the low-cost materials – clay minerals of the Cherkasy deposit of Ukraine montmorillonite (MMT) and palygorskite (PG) were used. MMT and PG were modified by quaternary ammonium cation hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA). It was found by the method of low-temperature nitrogen adsorption that the clays modification leads to the decrease of the specific surface area. At the same time, the micropores are almost completely filled and the structure of the samples is meso- and macroporous. It was found that natural MMT and PG are not suitable for the removal of organic pollutants from wasterwater, the treatment efficiency is 4.8% and 5.9%, respectively. Modification of MMT and PG by HDTMA leads to significant (16–19 times) increase of sorption capacity, the purification efficiency is 91.6% and 96.5%. Thus, the modified HDTMA clay minerals montmorillonite and palygorskite are promising adsorbents for successful wasterwater purification from organic pollutants.