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Adsorption of Ammonium Ions onto a Natural Zeolite: Transcarpathian

Clinoptilolite
Mariya Lebedynets1,2, Myroslav Sprynskyy1,3, Iryna Sakhnyuk3, Radoslaw Zbytniewski1,
Roman Golembiewski4 and Boguslaw Buszewski1* (1) Department of Environmental Chemistry and
Ecoanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 7 Gagarina Str., 87-100 Torun, Poland. (2)
Department of Ecological and Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Faculty of Geology, Ivan Franko Lviv National
University, 4 Grushevsky Str., 79005 Lviv, Ukraine. (3) Department of Oil and Gas Hydrogeology, Hydrogeochemistry
and Hydrosphere Protection, Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Combustible Minerals, Ukrainian National
Academy of Sciences, 3a Naukova Str., 79053 Lviv, Ukraine. (4) Department of Fundamentals of Chemistry, Faculty of
Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 7 Gagarina Str., 87-100 Torun, Poland.
(Received 16 January 2004; revised form accepted 31 May 2004)

ABSTRACT: A study was carried out of ammonium ion sorption from synthetic
aqueous solutions by Transcarpathian clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite, under
static conditions. The main physical properties of the clinoptilolite and the basic
parameters of its porous structure were determined. Values of the specific surface
area and of the pore volume occupied by sorbed substances were calculated using
the relative moisture content established and the maximum sorption capacity
exhibited towards ammonium ions as well as a nitrogen adsorption/desorption
method. Ammonium ion sorption by the zeolite appeared to be complete within
24 h for all fraction sizes, initial NH+4 ion concentration and adsorbate volumes.
The amounts of NH+4 ions sorbed increased with increasing initial NH+4 concentration
and decreasing adsorbate volumes, with the maximum sorption capacity exhibited
by the clinoptilolite being 0.64 mequiv/g. The sorption effectiveness decreased
somewhat with increasing fraction size. The Langmuir and Freundlich models were
applied to the data obtained from the batch studies with the first model exhibiting
the more satisfactory correlation coefficient value (0.996 and 0.959, respectively).

INTRODUCTION
The pollution of surface and ground waters by mineral forms of nitrogen is quite common, with
the loss from irrigated cropland and untreated industrial, municipal and agricultural wastewater
streams providing the sources of environmental pollution of an anthropogenic character. Elevated
levels of nitric compounds in natural waters not only complicate the use of freshwater resources,
but also have a negative influence on the ecological state of water and the surrounding objects.
The most effective natural process for reducing the content of nitrate(V) ions in water, i.e. the
stable form of nitrogen in surface and sub-surface waters under oxidation conditions, is dilution
with fresh water. However, this process is often impossible in sub-surface aquifers due to recharge
sources, filtration velocities and water volumes. Hence, the prevention of nitrogen pollution by the
removal of NH 4+ ions from wastewater is a necessary stage of a great importance.
*Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bbusz@chem.uni.torun.pl.

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Among the technologies for NH 4+ ion control are processes such as air stripping, breakpoint
chlorination, nitrification/denitrification, adsorption by activated coal, chemical coagulation and
ion exchange (Tsitsishvili et al. 1985). The advantages of the latter process became more obvious
when effective, low-cost materials were used as exchangers.
The natural zeolites are cheap materials which are readily available in large quantities in many
parts of the world. These have become especially important in the purification of water
(Misaelides et al. 2003). Being a natural zeolite with a representative unit-cell formula of
(Na3K3)(Al6Si30O72)24H2O, a void volume of 34%, channel dimensions of 3.9 5.4 and a
cation-exchange capacity of 2.16 mequiv/g, clinoptilolite seems to be the most attractive material
for the removal of NH 4+ ions from drinking water and wastewater because of its NH 4+ ion selectivity and good performance towards NH 4+ ion sorption at low temperatures (Tsitsishvili et al.
1985; Mumpton 1999). An additional advantage is the ability to use NH 4+ -saturated zeolite as a
nitrogen fertilizer without regeneration rather than the toxic admixtures normally present in
sewage. This reduces nitrogen loss from irrigated soils, decreases the number of nitrogen applications to crops and prevents sub-surface water pollution (Tsitsishvili et al. 1985). Because of its
preference for large cations, including NH 4+ , clinoptilolite is used for the removal of NH 4+ ions
from municipal sewage effluent as well as in agricultural and aqua-cultural applications.
Large-scale cation-exchange processes using natural zeolites were first developed by Ames
(1967) and Mercer et al. (1970) who demonstrated the effectiveness of clinoptilolite for extracting NH 4+ ions from municipal and agricultural waste streams (Mumpton 1999). Various aspects of
NH 4+ ion removal from aqueous solutions by clinoptilolite have been investigated by many
researchers. Thus, the removal of NH 4+ ions from municipal wastewater was studied by Koon and
Kaufman (1975) and Ershov et al. (1985), while Polyakov et al. (1979) studied the same process
from livestock farm wastewater. Gaspard et al. (1983) examined the NH 4+ ion removal characteristics from drinking water of clinoptilolite. Schoeman (1986) evaluated NNH+4 removal from
underground mine water by South African clinoptilolite (Pratley) and compared it with Hector
clinoptilolite from the USA. Demir et al. (2002) studied the capacity of Bigadi clinoptilolite
(Turkey) for removing NH 4+ ions from synthetic aqueous solutions under varying conditions.
Murphy et al. (1978) investigated the ion-exchange ability of clinoptilolite tuffs from various USA
deposits towards to NH 4+ ions. Nikolina (1979) analyzed the cation-exchange capacity of clinoptilolite derived from various deposits in the USSR (Dzegvi, Georgia; Transcarpathian deposits of
the Ukraine; Noembryan, Armenia). From the results of these two studies, it was concluded
that the cation-exchange capacity of clinoptilolite from different sources towards NH 4+ ion removal
varied by up to 1.7-times. In addition, Haralambous et al. (1992) compared the capacities of natural
and synthetic zeolites towards NH 4+ ion removal from aqueous solution.
Zeolites remove NH 4+ ions from aqueous solutions by exchange with cations or by adsorption
in the pores of aluminosilicate systems. Thus, ion exchange prevails when the NH 4+ ion concentration is equal to or lower than the concentration of exchangeable cations in the zeolite. Similarly,
the adsorption process begins to predominate as the NH 4+ ion content of the system increases
(Jorgensen et al. 1976). The cation-exchange capacity of clinoptilolite tends to increase with an
increase in the relative content of alkaline metal cations but is independent of the alkaline-earth
cation content of the mineral (Nikolina 1979). Tsitsishvili et al. (1985) and Demir et al. (2002)
established that the effectiveness towards NH 4+ ion removal increases as the zeolite particle size
decreases.
The NH 4+ cation-exchange capacity depends on the presence of other cations in the aqueous
phase and the initial NH 4+ ion concentration (Ames 1967; Polyakov et al. 1979; Gaspard et al.
1983; Lin and Wu 1996; Singh and Prasan 1997; Kithome et al. 1998; Demir et al. 2002).

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Because of the high selectivity of zeolites towards the potassium ion, it is the main competitor in
the removal of NH 4+ ions from aqueous solutions by clinoptilolite (Polyakov et al. 1979; Mumpton
1999). The amounts of NH 4+ ions sorbed by clinoptilolite increase as the initial concentration
of NH 4+ ions increases in the system, with NH 4+ ion adsorption and desorption by zeolites being
diffusion-controlled (Kithome et al. 1998). Since ion exchange is an endothermic process, an
increase in temperature tends to increase the effectiveness of natural zeolites towards the removal
of NH 4+ ions (Nikolina 1979; Lin and Wu 1996). The pH value is also an important factor in the
cation-exchange purification of water, because only the ionized form of ammonium can be
removed by the cation-exchange process. Hence, for optimum operations, the pH of the aqueous
solution must be maintained at or below 7 (Tsitsishvili et al. 1985; Demir et al. 2002). Kithome
et al. (1998) established that the amount of NH 4+ ions sorbed by clinoptilolite increased as the pH
was increased from 4 to 7.
The cation-exchange capacity of clinoptilolite is influenced significantly by chemical and physical pretreatment and the loading or regeneration of the zeolite (Murphy et al. 1978; Nikolina
1979; Polyakov et al. 1979; Klieve and Semmens 1980; Tarasevich et al. 1985; Ershov et al. 1985;
Demir et al. 2002). In addition, Eshov et al. (1985) have investigated the adsorption properties
of Transcarpathian natural zeolites towards ammonium compounds in aqueous solutions and
analyzed the use of the Transcarpathian clinoptilolite for extracting NH 4+ cations from Kiev
sewage. The same zeolite sorbent from the Sokyrnytsya deposit has been used as a filter in
the purification unit of the water station system in the Polonne Khmelnitsky region (Tarasevich
et al. 1985).
The purpose of the present work was to investigate the sorption characteristics of the natural
zeolite, Transcarpathian clinoptilolite, towards NH 4+ ions under static conditions. The main physical properties of as-extracted clinoptilolite samples and their basic porous structure parameters
were determined. The equilibrium parameters for the sorption of NH 4+ ions from synthetic aqueous
solutions by Transcarpathian clinoptilolite have been established.

EXPERIMENTAL
Samples and chemicals
Clinoptilolite rock samples from the Sokyrnytsya deposit (Transcarpathian region, Ukraine) containing 7075% clinoptilolite were used in the study. Quartz, calcite, biotite, muscovite, chlorite
and montmorillonite were found to be the main contaminants of such samples. The characteristics
of the zeolite adsorbent used are listed in Table 1. It will be noted that the exchange cations were
Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+, with the latter being the most prevalent (Valter et al. 1975). The clinoptilolite samples were ground in a metal mortar and divided by mechanical sieves into the
following size fractions: 0.10.16; 0.160.25; 0.250.315; 0.3150.5; 0.51.0; and 1.02.0 (mm).
Each fraction was washed with distilled water to remove any turbidity. Then, one part of every
fraction was dried at room temperature (air-dried) while the other parts of two fractions (0.51.0
and 0.160.315 mm) were dried at 110C for 2.5 h to remove any adsorbed water. Finally, the
clinoptilolite samples were stored in a desiccator before use.
Ammonium chloride stock solution (1000 mg/l NH 4+ ) was prepared by dissolved NH4Cl (A.R.
grade) in deionized water. Synthetic samples of aqueous solution were prepared by adding appropriate amounts of NH4Cl stock solution to deionized water to obtain NH 4+ ion concentrations of
5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/l, respectively.

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M. Lebedynets et al./Adsorption Science & Technology Vol. 22 No. 9 2004

TABLE 1. Characteristics of the Transcarpathian

Clinoptilolite Studied (Valter et al. 1975)

Property

Value

Maximum SiO2 content

SiO2/Al2O3 ratio
Thermal stability
Static water-storage capacity
Relative moisture content
Exchange cation content

70%
10
up to 650700C
9.03%
10.19%
53.5 mmol/100 g

Tests of physical properties

The relative moisture content of the clinoptilolite was determined by drying the rock samples
at 110C to constant weight (as determined by thermometric methods). The specific gravity
was determined by picnometric methods with a measurement error of 0.02 g/cm3. The volume
density of the dried rock was analyzed by hydrostatic weighing after preliminary treatment
with paraffin, the porosity being calculated from the determined values of the specific gravity and
volume density.
Sorption kinetics
Six replicate amounts of each size fraction of the air-dried clinoptilolite (0.5 g) were placed individually into 50 ml of a 10 mg/l NH4Cl contained in 330-ml volume glass tubes. Each tube was
shaken separately. Samples were then taken periodically (after 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 h),
filtered and the NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous phase determined.
Batch experiments
The sorption of NH 4+ ions by a given clinoptilolite sample was studied using the batch equilibrium
method in four phases. In the first phase, six replicate amounts of each size fraction of the air-dried
clinoptilolite (0.5 g) were shaken singly with 10, 25, 50 and 100 ml of NH4Cl solutions of 50, 20,
10 and 5 mg/l concentration, respectively. After 24 h, the NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous
phase was determined after filtration of each sample. In the second phase of the study, six replicate amounts of each size fraction of the air-dried clinoptilolite (0.5 g) were shaken singly with
50 ml of 10, 20, 40, 100, 200, 400 and 1000 mg/l NH4Cl solutions with the NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous phase being determined after 24 h following filtration of each sample. In the
third phase of the experiment, four replicate amounts of two fractions (0.51.0 and 0.160.315
mm) of air-dried and 110C-dried samples of clinoptilolite (0.5 g) were shaken singly with 50 ml
of 40 mg/l NH4Cl solution with the NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous phase being determined
after 24 h following filtration of each sample.
Chemical analysis
The NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous phase was determined using the standard Nessler
reagent method employing a Perkin-Elmer 402 UV spectrophotometer. The sensitivity of the

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method was 0.1 g/ml, the measurement error ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 g/ml while the reproducibility error was 0.10.5 g/ml.
Evaluation of sorption parameters and modelling
The specific surface area of the clinoptilolite was calculated using the relative moisture content of
the original rock sample as determined by thermometric methods, while the maximum sorption
capacity towards NH 4+ ions was evaluated via the following expression (Dubinin 1985) assuming
monolayer adsorption:
S

A m N 0

(1)

where S is the specific surface area of the sorbent (m2/g); Am is the monolayer capacity of the
sorbed molecules expressed as mmol/(g sorbent); is the area occupied by one sorbed molecule
of water in the monolayer (m2); and N0 is Avogadros number.
The pore volume of sorbent occupied by water molecules at room temperature was also calculated on the basis of the relative moisture of the sorbent as determined in this study by thermometric
methods via the expression:
W

W0 N 0 M

(2)

where W is the pore volume occupied by water molecules at room temperature (cm3); W0 is the
volume of one water molecule (cm3) [W0 = 4/3r3, where r is the radius of a water molecule (cm)];
N0 is Avogadros number; and M is the amount of water occupying the sorbent porous volume as
determined by thermometric methods (mmol/g).
The pore volume of the sorbent occupied by NH 4+ ions was also calculated employing the
maximum sorption capacity towards NH 4+ ions as determined in this study using equation
(2), where W is the pore volume occupied by NH 4+ ions at the maximum sorption capacity (cm3);
W0 is the volume of one NH 4+ ion (cm3) [W0 = 4/3r3, where r is the radius of the NH 4+ ion (cm)];
N0 is Avogadros number; and M is the amount of NH 4+ ions occupying the porous volume of the
sorbent at the maximum sorption capacity (mmol/g).
The equilibrium NH 4+ ion adsorption from aqueous solution was determined from the formula:

(C 0

C e )V/m

(3)

where q is the amount of NH 4+ ions sorbed at equilibrium [mg/(g sorbent)]; C0 is the initial
concentration of NH 4+ ions (mg/l); Ce is the equilibrium concentration of NH 4+ ions (mg/l); V is
the volume of solution from which adsorption occurs (l); and m is the adsorbent mass (g).
The sorption effectiveness was calculated from the following formula:
E

100 m e /m 0

(4)

where E is the sorption effectiveness (%); me is the mass of NH 4+ ions sorbed at equilibrium (mg);
and m0 is the initial mass of NH 4+ ions in the aqueous solution(mg).

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The adsorption of NH 4+ ions was evaluated by means of the first-order kinetic, Langmuir,
Freundlich and linear models. The first-order kinetic model may be expressed by the following
equation:
C

C 0 exp( K1t )

(5)

where C is the NH 4+ ion concentration in the aqueous phase (mg/l) after time t (h); C0 is the initial concentration of NH 4+ ions (m); and K1 is the velocity constant.
The Langmuir equation may be written as:
q

K L C e /(1 + aC e )

(6)

where KL (KL = aM) and a are the Langmuir model parameters while M is the adsorption
maximum, all other symbols having been explained already.
The Freundlich equation may be written as:
q

n < 1

K F C en

(7)

where KF and n are empirical constants, with all other symbols having been explained already.
The linear model may be considered as similar to the Freundlich equation with the parameter n
being set equal to unity:
q

K dCe

(8)

where Kd is called the partition coefficient.

The goodness-of-fit of the model to the experimental data was checked by comparison of the
correlation coefficient R2 and the standard error SE. The CurveExpert 1.37 freeware program was
used in all the calculations with the confidence level set at 95%.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following results were obtained on the basis of our measurements of the physical properties
of the original sorbent: relative moisture content of clinoptilolite sample, 6.18%; specific gravity,
2.38 g/cm3; volume density of dried rock, 1.68 g/cm3; and porosity, 29.4%.
The progress of the sorption process was followed until sorption equilibrium had been attained.
Sorption of NH 4+ ions appeared to be complete on all six samples within 24 h. The corresponding
kinetic data for air-dried clinoptilolite of fraction size 0.51.0 mm are depicted in Figure 1.
The results demonstrate that the first 50% of the NH 4+ ions were sorbed during the first 7 h, with
a further ca. 40% being sorbed during the next 17 h and the extraction process being virtually
complete after 24 h. The difference between the rate of NH 4+ ion removal during the first 7 h and
that in the following period may be connected either with different mechanisms for the process
over these stages (ion exchange and adsorption) or with the different localization of adsorption
centres (on the surface or within the internal porous structure, respectively).
The direct dependence of sorption on the initial NH 4+ ion concentration in solution and the indirect dependence on the adsorbate volume may be explained by increasing diffusion control of

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737

Amt. of NH+4 ions sorbed (mg/g)

Adsorption of Ammonium Ions onto Natural Zeolite: Transcarpathian Clinoptilolite

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0

10

20

30
Time (h)

40

50

60

Figure 1. Sorption kinetics of NH+4 ions onto air-dried clinoptilolite (fraction size, 0.51.0 mm).

adsorption with increasing concentration gradient. The corresponding data for air-dried clinoptilolite of 0.51.0-mm fraction size are listed in Table 2.
The sorption ability of the air-dried clinoptilolite and of the sample dried at 110C towards
NH 4+ ions decreased somewhat as the fraction size of the sorbent increased (Figure 2). The more
effective NH 4+ ion adsorption by the finest fraction of clinoptilolite may have been due to
increased accessibility of the internal pore structure in the smallest particles.
In contrast to the sorption capacity, the relative effectiveness of NH 4+ ion sorption by clinoptilolite decreased with increasing initial NH 4+ ion concentration in the solution (Table 3). The
maximum sorption capacity of the air-dried clinoptilolite towards NH 4+ ions as evaluated at an initial NH 4+ ion concentration of 1000 mg/l was 11.6 mg (0.64 mequiv) per gram of sorbent.
The data listed in Table 4 demonstrate the insignificant growth in NH 4+ ion sorption as the
drying temperature of the clinoptilolite was increased from 20C to 110C, probably as a result of
the partial removal of water sorbed in the porous structure. Because of the different nature of the
sorbed substances, the values for the specific surface area and the occupied porous volume of
the sorbent calculated for water and NH 4+ ions varied over a wide range (Table 5).
The plots of the experimental data for the sorption of NH 4+ ions onto clinoptilolite of 0.160.315mm fraction size using equations (5), (6) and (7), respectively, depicted in Figures 3 and 4

TABLE 2. Influence of Adsorbate Volume and Initial NH +4 Ion Concentration on NH +4 Ion

Adsorption onto Clinoptilolitea

Adsorbate
volume (ml)

Initial conc. of
NH+4 ions (mg/l)

Sorption
effectiveness (%)

Amt. of NH +4 ions
sorbed (mg/g)

10
25
50
100

50
20
10
5

95.2
88.1
79.0
53.3

0.95
0.88
0.79
0.53

Fraction size, 0.51.0 mm.

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Amt. of NH4+ ions sorbed (mg/g)

0.10.16

0.160.315

0.3150.5

0.51.0

1.02.0

Fraction size (mm)

+

Figure 2. Effect of fraction size of clinoptilolite on its sorption capacity towards NH 4 ions.

TABLE 3. Influence of Initial NH +4 Ion Concentration in the Aqueous Solution on the

Sorption Capacity of the Air-dried Clinoptilolitea
Initial NH +4 ion
conc. (mg/l)

Initial amt. of NH +4
ions in solution (mg)

10
20
40
100
200
400
1000

0.5
1
2
5
10
20
50

Sorption
effectiveness (%)

Amt. of NH +4 ions
sorbed (mg/g)

89.9
88.2
84.6
68.9
48.2
28.0
11.7

0.9
1.8
3.4
6.8
9.6
11.2
11.6

Fraction size, 0.16 0.315 mm.

TABLE 4. Influence of Thermal Treatment of Clinoptilolite on

NH+4 Ion Sorption
Sorption
effectiveness (%)

Amt. of NH +4 ions
sorbed (mg/g)

Clinoptilolite dried at 20C

Fraction size, 0.160.315 mm
Fraction size, 0.51.0 mm

87.3
83.4

3.50
3.34

Clinoptilolite dried at 110C

Fraction size, 0.160.315 mm
Fraction size, 0.51.0 mm

89.1
85.8

3.56
3.44

Samples

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Adsorption of Ammonium Ions onto Natural Zeolite: Transcarpathian Clinoptilolite

TABLE 5. Values of the Structural Parameters of Air-dried Clinoptilolite as

Calculated from the Adsorption of Water and NH +4 Ions
Parameter

Water adsorption

NH+4 ion adsorption

Specific area (m2/g)

Porous volume (cm3/g)

113.09
0.0227

32.53
0.0071

Conc. of NH+4 ions in solution (mg/I)

10

0
0

10

20

30
Time (h)

40

50

60

Amt. of NH+4 ions sorbed from solution (mg/g)

Figure 3. Sorption of NH 4 ions with time as described by the first-order kinetic model: , experimental data;

, first-order kinetic model.
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0

200

400
Equilibrium conc. of

600
NH+4 ions

800

1000

in solution (mg/l)

Figure 4. Sorption isotherm for NH 4 ions as described by the Langmuir and Freundlich models: , experimental data;

, Langmuir model; , Freundlich model.

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TABLE 6. Model Parameters for the Sorption of NH +4 Ions by Clinoptilolite

Models

Transcarpathian
clinoptilolite, Ukraine

Raw Bigadi clinoptilolite,

Turkey (Demir et al. 2002)

0.109
0.965
0.804

Langmuir
KL
a
M
R2
SE

0.636
0.055
11.652
0.996
0.438

0.440
0.085

0.992

Freundlich
KF
n
R2
SE

2.510
0.245
0.959
1.457

0.608
0.537
0.956

Linear
Kd
R2
SE

0.017
0.238
4.880

First-order kinetic
K1
R2
SE

indicate that the first-order kinetic, Langmuir and Freundlich models gave good fits to the data in
contrast to the situation with the linear model. The values of the parameters KL, a, M, KF, n, Kd
and K1 as well as the corresponding correlation coefficients (R2) and standard errors (SE) are presented in Table 6 where they are compared with the data for the Langmuir and Freundlich model
parameters obtained for NH 4+ ion sorption onto Bigadi (Turkey) clinoptilolite obtained by Demir
et al. (2002). The maximum adsorption value obtained for the Transcarpathian clinoptilolite was
ca. twice as large as the corresponding value for the Bigadi clinoptilolite, as calculated from the
batch experimental results of Demir et al. (2002).

CONCLUSIONS
The time necessary to achieve adsorption equilibrium for NH 4+ ions from aqueous solution onto
Transcarpathian clinoptilolite was 24 h irrespective of the fraction size, initial NH 4+ ion concentration in the solution and the adsorbate volume. The first-order kinetic model provided a good
description of NH 4+ ion sorption by clinoptilolite. The amounts of NH 4+ ions sorbed increased with
increasing initial NH 4+ ion concentration and decreasing adsorbate volume, thereby demonstrating
the importance of diffusion in the adsorption process. The maximum sorption capacity of

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Adsorption of Ammonium Ions onto Natural Zeolite: Transcarpathian Clinoptilolite

741

Transcarpathian clinoptilolite for the removal of NH 4+ ions from aqueous solution attained at an
initial NH 4+ ion concentration of 1000 mg/l was 11.6 mg (0.64 mequiv) per gram of sorbent.
The effectiveness of NH 4+ ion sorption by the clinoptilolite samples decreased somewhat as the
fraction size of the solid particles increased from 0.10.16 to 1.02.0 mm. The Langmuir and
Freundlich adsorption models were applied to the data obtained from the batch studies. The
Langmuir isotherm which assumes the formation of an adsorption monolayer gave a more adequate
value for the correlation coefficient compared to that for the Freundlich isotherm.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of us (M.L.) wishes to thank Kasa Mianowskiego (Warsaw, Poland) for a scholarship.

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