Adsorption and Stabilization of Phenol by Modified Local Clay

Phenol is a common pollutant that was listed by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among the priority pollutants. Classical methods employed for phenol removal are either costly or limited to large-scale applications such as biological and thermal decomposition methods. In this study, adsorption of phenol by a type of clay that is extracted from a local soil called Khoweldi was investigated. The X-Ray diffraction revealed that the studied clay is mainly muscovite. The study showed that the local clay could be used as matrix for long-term storage of organic pollutants. Phenol adsorption isotherms conducted on natural and modified clay with Hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) revealed that HDTMA enhanced the adsorption capacity of the clay for phenol. To prevent the migration of the adsorbed pollutants into the environment, encapsulation of the modified clay by organosilane was found to be very effective.