Alkaline activated material as the adsorbent for uptake of high concentration of zinc from wastewater

The use of wastes for developing of new materials is a sustainable approach. In current study adsorbent produced from industrial waste was tested for an ability to decrease high concentration of zinc in standard solution and industrial wastewater. The geopolymer production requires mixing of post-industrial waste with naturally occurred aluminosilicate materials by using binding agent at the ambient or slightly increased temperature in order to produce a long lasting eco-friendly cementitious material. The tested media decreased concentration of zinc in standard solution from 72,9 to 19,6 mg/L in 30 min showing similar performance as commercially available zeolite material. In experiments with wastewater the adsorption of Zn by alkaline activated material was much lower, which can be explained by the fact that wastewater contained generous amounts of different metal ions, organic substances and oils. Despite complex composition of wastewater tested material was able to immobilize at minimum 22 mg/L (32%) Zn from the solution.