Abstract
Discharges of acidic, highly mineralized water (acid mine drainage - AMD) belong to accompaniment of mining activities that have a negative impact on the environment in many countries of the World, especially where mining activities have had a long tradition. Generally, AMD is the product of sulphide minerals oxidation. The typical character of these discharges is low pH (about 3-4) and high concentration of heavy metals. This very low pH is limiting for many various treatment technologies, including sorption.
Sorption techniques are widely used to remove heavy metal ions from different water solutions, because they are highly effective and low cost. The use of natural or synthetic sorbents is closely linked to specific conditions. On the other hand the different sorption properties of adsorbents are also very important. These properties include porosity, specific surface area, ion exchange capacity, selectivity or modifiability. The aim of this paper is to describe the influence of the particle size of zeolite on the heavy metals sorption process under acidic conditions. Natural clinoptilolite with various granularities were used for this purpose.
Experiments were aimed to the study of the sorption equilibrium of zeolite for various concentrations of the cations (Cu2+ and Zn2+) from acidic solutions.
