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Treatment of gold ore cyanidation wastewater by adsorption onto a Hydrotalcite-type anionic clay as a novel adsorbent

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Abstract

The treatment of cyanide contaminated wastewater from a gold processing plant was performed by the synthesized nanostructured Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) which has known as a Hydrotalcite-type anionic clay. LDH was synthesized by the co-precipitation process, characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Wavelength Dispersive X-ray analysis (WDX) and applied for removal of free cyanide from both synthetic solution and mining effluent. The maximum particle size of synthesized LDH was determined to be 4 nm based on the Scherrer’s equation. The maximum loading capacity of LDH, 60 mg/g, indicates that LDH is an interesting adsorbent for cyanide removal. The data modeling showed that the kinetic and equilibrium data best fitted by FPKM and RPIM, respectively, also, rate-controlling step in the adsorption process is intra-particle diffusion based on Weber–Morris plot, and the adsorption of CN− onto LDH is a two-step process. The thermodynamic studies confirm that the adsorption of free cyanide on Mg/Al LDH is a spontaneous and endothermic process. The energy of activation for adsorption of free cyanide on Mg/Al LDH was determined to be 6.14 kJ/mol, which is in the range physicochemical sorption. The mining wastewater treatment was performed by the synthesized LDH. The adsorption experiments showed that more than 90% of free cyanide was removed from the real solution during a short period of contact time, which confirms the ability of LDH for the treatment of industrial cyanide contaminated wastewater.

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Abbreviations

EPA:

Environmental Protection Agency.

LDH:

Layered Double Hydroxide.

XRD:

X-Ray Diffraction.

XRF:

X-Ray Fluorescence.

SEM:

Scanning Electron Microscopy.

WDX:

Wave length dispersive X-ray.

FTIR:

Fourier transform infrared.

BET:

Brunauer-Emmett-Teller.

BJH:

Barrett–Joyner– Halenda.

MPSD:

Marquardt’s percent standard deviation.

ARE:

Average Relative Error.

R2 :

Correlation coefficient.

LAIM:

Langmuir Isotherm Model.

FRIM:

Freundlich Isotherm Model.

TEIM:

Temkin Isotherm Model.

RPIM:

Redlich–Peterson Isotherm Model.

KCIM:

Koble–Corrigan Isotherm Model.

ELKM:

Elovich Kinetic Model.

FPKM:

Fractional Power Kinetic Model.

PFOKM:

Pseudo-First Order Kinetic Model.

PSOKM:

Pseudo-Second Order Kinetic Model.

WMIDM:

Weber and Morris Intaparticle Diffusion Model.

qe :

The adsorbed cyanide after equilibrium (mg/g).

qt :

The adsorbed cyanide at time t (mg/g).

D:

Mean crystallite size (nm),

K:

A constant value (usually 0.9, but varies based on the crystallite shape),

λ:

X-ray wavelength (0.154 nm for Ka Cu),

θ:

Bragg’s angle in degrees,

β:

Full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak.

C0 :

Initial CN− concentration (mg/L),

Ce :

CN− concentration after equilibrium (mg/L).

Ct :

CN− concentration at time t (mg/L).

V:

Solution volume (L).

W:

Adsorbent mass (g).

qexp :

Experimental amount of CN− adsorbed on the Mg/Al LDH (mg/g).

qcal :

Calculated amount of CN− adsorbed on the Mg/Al LDH (mg/g).

N:

Number of data point.

p:

Number of model parameters.

T:

Absolute temperature (K).

R:

Ideal gas constant (8.314 J mol−1 K−1).

k1 :

PSOKM Type (I) rate constant (g mg−1 h−1).

A:

Temperature-independent factor (min−1).

Ea :

Adsorption activation energy (kJ mol−1).

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Acknowledgments

This work was a part of the MSc thesis of Rasool Alaei (first author), a student of the University of Birjand. The authors are grateful to the Head, Department of mineral processing for providing all the necessary facilities and grants to conduct this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mining engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

    Rasool Alaei, Sepideh Javanshir & Ali Behnamfard

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  1. Rasool Alaei
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Correspondence to Sepideh Javanshir.

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Alaei, R., Javanshir, S. & Behnamfard, A. Treatment of gold ore cyanidation wastewater by adsorption onto a Hydrotalcite-type anionic clay as a novel adsorbent. J Environ Health Sci Engineer 18, 779–791 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-020-00503-x

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