• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.471-479
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• 2009

A Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron(NZVI) was modified to build a reactor system to treat nitrate. Shell layer of the NZVI was modified by slow exposure of the iron surface to air flow, which produced NZVI particles that are resistant to aerial oxidation. A XANES (X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure) analysis revealed that the shell consists of magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) dominantly. The shell-modified NZVI(0.5 g NZVI/ 120 mL) was able to degrade more than 95% of 30 mg/L of nitrate within $30 hr^{-1}$ ( pseudo first-order rate constant($k_{SA}$) normalzed to NZVI surface area ($17.96m^2/g$) : $0.0050L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$). Ammonia occupied about 90% of degradation products of nitrate. Nitrate degradation efficiencies increased with the increase of NZVI dose generally. Initial pH values of the reactor systems at 4, 7, and 10 did not affect nitrate removal rate and final pH values of all experiments were near 12. Nitrate removal experiments by using the shell-modified NZVI immobilized on a cellulose acetate (CA) membrane were also conducted. The nitrate removal efficiency of the CA membrane supported NZVI ($k_{SA}=0.0036L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$) was less than that of the NZVI slurries($k_{SA}=0.0050L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$), which is probably due to less surface area available for reduction and to kinetic retardation by nitrate transport through the CA membrane. The detachment of the NZVI from the CA membrane was minimal and impregnation of up to 1 g of NZVI onto 1 g of the CA membrane was found feasible.