Experimental and CFD modeling of diazinon pesticide removal using fixed bed column with Cu-modified zeolite nanoparticle

In this study, perlite was employed as a low-cost source of Si and Al in the synthesis of sodalite zeolite by means of the hydrothermal synthesis method. The structural characterization of this zeolite was performed by XRD, SEM and FTIR analysis. Nanoparticles of Cu2O (30-60 nm) were loaded on the zeolite and utilized as an adsorbent to remove diazinon in fixed bed column. The SEM-EDX of modified zeolite indicates that the amount of copper loading on the zeolite was 4.5 wt.%. The potential parameters effects such as flow rate (0.5, 1 and 1.5 mL/min), initial concentration (50, 75 and 100 mg/L) and bed height (5-15 cm) were investigated on the column performance. A general model was used to predict the breakthrough curves of the fixed bed for diazinon sorption, given the external mass transfer resistance and the axial dispersion with non-linear adsorption isotherm. COMSOL software was employed for the numerical calculation of equations in the model. There was a good agreement between the predicted theoretical breakthrough curves and the experimental results. (C) 2017 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.