RESEARCH ARTICLE Phenol removal from wastewater by adsorption on zeolitic composite Otilia Bizerea Spiridon & Elena Preda & Alexandru Botez & Laura Pitulice Received: 14 December 2012 / Accepted: 11 March 2013 / Published online: 16 April 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract It is well known that adsorption is an efficient method of removal of various pollutants from wastewater. The present study examines the phenol removal from water by adsorption on a new material, based on zeolitic volcanic tuff. This compound contains zeolitic tuff and cellulose, another known adsorbent, in a mass ratio of 4 to 1. The performances of the new adsorbent composite were com- pared with those of a widely used adsorbent material, zeo- litic volcanic tuff. The adsorbent properties were tested on batch synthetic solutions containing 1–10 mg L -1 (1– 10 ppm) phenol, at room temperature without pH adjust- ment. The influence of the adsorbent dose, pH and contact time on the removal degree of phenol from water was investigated. The experimental data were modeled using the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption iso- therms. The Langmuir model was found to best represent our data revealing a monolayer adsorption with a maximum adsorption capacity between 0.12 and 0.53 mg g -1 at 25 °C, for 2.00 g of adsorbent, depending on the initial phenol concentration. The adsorption kinetic study was performed using a pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order kinetic mod- els illustrating that phenol adsorption on zeolite composite is well described by pseudo-first kinetic equations. Our results indicated that phenol adsorption on the new adsorbent com- posite is superior to that on the classic zeolite. Keywords Wastewater treatment . Phenol removal . Zeolite . Adsorption . Adsorption isotherm . Kinetics . Pseudo-first order . Pseudo-second order Introduction Phenol and its derivatives are among the most frequently used organic compounds. They are the basis of the synthesis of many different products such as phenolic and epoxy resins, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, insecticides, pesticides, etc. (Hameed and Rahman 2008). On the other hand, phenolic compounds are important contaminants of the wastewater generated by various phenol based technological processes: oil extraction and refining, coal conversion, textile and leather industry, plastics industry, paint manufacturing, olive oil pro- duction, etc. (Polat et al. 2006; Hamdaoui and Naffrechoux 2007; Kennedy et al. 2007; Lin et al. 2009; Lü et al. 2011). Therefore, phenols can be present in municipal and industrial sewage, in natural waters and in some situations even in drinking water. When drinking water is chlorinated, phenol, if present, is easily transformed into chlorophenols, com- pounds even more toxic than phenol. The presence of these compounds generates an unpleasant odor and water taste (Yousef and El-Eswed 2009; Singh et al. 2012). Due to its high toxicity, solubility and low biodegradabil- ity, phenol is considered one of the most dangerous water contaminants having a high carcinogenic potential (Ming et al. 2006, Zhang et al. 2009). Different studies have shown that phenol and its derivatives cause undesirable and harm- ful effects on animals and humans even at concentrations lower than 0.1 ppm (Saravanakumar and Kumar 2011). The usage of phenol contaminated drinking water affects the central nervous system, the cardiovascular and urogenital Responsible editor: Hailong Wang O. Bizerea Spiridon : E. Preda : A. Botez : L. Pitulice Department of Biology–Chemistry, West University of Timisoara, 16 Pestalozzi, Timisoara, Romania O. Bizerea Spiridon : L. Pitulice Laboratory of Advanced Researches in Environmental Protection (LCAM), 4 Oituz, 300086 Timisoara, Romania L. Pitulice (*) University of Iasi, 11 Carol I, 700506 Iasi, Romania e-mail: laurapitulice@yahoo.com Environ Sci Pollut Res (2013) 20:6367–6381 DOI 10.1007/s11356-013-1625-x