Preparation and evaluation of Fullers earth beads for removal of cesium from waste streams

Fullers earth beads and cylinders were prepared using chitosan and sodium silicate as binders, respectively, for removal of cesium ion from aqueous solutions. The cost of the adsorbent is expected to be significantly lower as the raw materials are low cost materials and readily available. The adsorbents were characterized by SEM, EDS, and x-ray microanalysis. Adsorption capacity of the beads was evaluated under both batch and dynamic conditions. The adsorption capacity for Fullers earth beads was found to be 26.3 mg/g of adsorbent at 293 K when the liquid phase concentration of cesium was 1000 mg/L. The adsorption capacity of Fullers earth cylinder was found to be higher than that of beads, however, it was concluded that the alkaline nature of the cylinder precipitated out cesium increasing its capacity. The capacity of Fullers earth beads decreased by almost 62% when 1 mol/L NaCl and 2.25 mmol/L of strontium were present in the solution. The Freundlich, the Langmuir isotherm equations, and a modified Polanyi's equation were used to correlate the data. The isosteric heats of adsorption suggested the heterogeneity of the surface and multilayer coverage. The first order reversible kinetic model adequately described the dynamic system during the adsorption process. The adsorption (k(1)) and desorption (k(2)) rate constants were evaluated from the dynamic model.