Novel granular materials with microcrystalline active surfaces: waste water treatment applications of zeolite/vermiculite composites

The application of zeolites as adsorbents for waste water management is limited by the facts that only synthetic zeolites have sufficient capacity and only natural zeolites can be manufactured in practical sizes for application, i.e. synthetic zeolites have too small a grain size to be used and natural zeolites have low adsorption capacities. This study seeks to resolve this problem by the manufacture of synthetic zeolites upon an expanded lamella matrix (vermiculite). The synthesized composite was tested to show whether it combined the useful properties of both natural and synthetic zeolites. The study compared: hydraulic conductivity, adsorption capacity and rate of attainment of equilibrium of the synthetic composite in comparison to both a natural and a synthetic zeolite. The results demonstrate that the vermiculite-based composite shows the same hydraulic properties as a natural clinoptilolite with similar grain size (2-5mm), however, the rate of adsorption and maximum coverage were improved by a factor of 4.