The aim of this study was to examine nitrate removal by quaternized silica gel (q-SG) in ternary solutions of nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate under flow-through column conditions. q-SG was synthesized by grafting dimethyloctyl[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl] ammonium chloride on silica gel. Fixed-bed column experimental conditions (N = 15) were designed using central composite design to examine dynamic removal behaviors of competing anions in columns containing q-SG. During the experiments, influent solution containing ternary anions of nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate was injected into flow-through columns. In the effluent, the ternary anions along with chloride were monitored to obtain competitive breakthrough curves. Column experiments demonstrated the dynamic and competitive removal behaviors of anions during adsorption and leaching in the columns. Artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed based on the column experimental data to predict the removal rates of anions in the column experiments. In the model development, influent concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate were selected as three variables in the input layer, whereas removal rates of nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate were chosen as three variables in the output layer. The developed ANN model with topology 3:8:9:3 (three input variables, eight neurons in the first hidden layer, nine neurons in the second hidden layer, and three output variables) could simultaneously predict the removal rates of anions in column experiments.

这项研究的目的是研究在流通柱条件下，季铵化硅胶（q-SG）在硝酸盐，磷酸盐和硫酸盐的三元溶液中的硝酸盐去除率。通过将二甲基辛基[3-（三甲氧基甲硅烷基）丙基]氯化铵接枝在硅胶上来合成q-SG。固定床柱实验条件（N = 15）是使用中央复合设计设计的，以检查含有q-SG的色谱柱中竞争性阴离子的动态去除行为。在实验过程中，将含有硝酸根，磷酸根和硫酸根三元阴离子的进水溶液注入流通柱中。在废水中，对三价阴离子和氯离子进行监测以获得竞争性突破曲线。色谱柱实验证明了阴离子在色谱柱吸附和浸出过程中的动态和竞争性去除行为。基于柱实验数据开发了人工神经网络（ANN）模型，以预测柱实验中阴离子的去除率。在模型开发中，将进水层中硝酸盐，磷酸盐和硫酸盐的进水浓度选为输入层中的三个变量，而硝酸盐的去除率，选择磷酸盐和硫酸盐作为输出层中的三个变量。拓扑为3：8：9：3的已开发ANN模型（三个输入变量，第一个隐藏层中的八个神经元，第二个隐藏层中的九个神经元和三个输出变量）可以在柱实验中同时预测阴离子的去除率。