Alamo-Nole L.A., Roman F., Perales-Perez O.
University Of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, PR
Keywords: crumb rubber, organic solvents, water treatment
Crumb rubber is composed of a complex mixture of elastomers (polyisoprene, polybutadiene and styrene-butadiene) and carbon black, as reinforcing agent, among other compounds. The contents of carbon black and the presence of the elastomeric matrix would make viable the removal of target species from aqueous solutions through sorption/adsorption mechanisms. Waste tires crumb rubber was used to remove ethylbenzene (E), toluene (T) and xylene (X) from aqueous solutions at room temperature. Concentrations of ETX were quantified by GC-MS. The sorption capability of mesh 14-20 crumb rubber was investigated by using different concentrations of the sorbent (10.0, 5.0 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1 g crumb rubber/L of ETX solution) at pH 1.5 and 6.0. The removal efficiency was dependent on solution pH and crumb rubber concentration. At pH 6 and 10 g/L of crumb rubber up to 99, 95 and 77% of xylene, ethylbenzene and toluene, respectively, were removed from starting 30 mg/L ETX solutions. The corresponding uptake capacities were 55, 48 and 24 mg/g crumb rubber. The ETX removal efficiency by crumb rubber was xylene > ethylbenzene > toluene.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 4, Technical Proceedings of the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 4
Published: May 20, 2007
Pages: 675 - 678
Industry sector: Energy & Sustainability
Topic: Materials for Oil & Gas
ISBN: 1-4200-6376-6