Abstract
Radioactive waste contains nitrate and nitrite as well as radioactive fission products. Nitrate and nitrite anions are two of the major components of nuclear waste streams and contribute to environmental release hazards. The removal of nitrate and nitrite is a necessary step for the further treatment low-level radioactive wastes. The focus of the research is to evaluate the adsorption potential of solid phase derived from rice straw for nitrate and nitrite anions in single- and binary-component systems due to the fact that the rice straw is a very abundant and by-product material. The removal was accomplished under the optimize conditions of temperature, concentration, pH, contact time and quantity of adsorbent as these parameters are some of the main factors influencing the uptake of two solutes at the solid–solution interface. Batch-mode kinetic and equilibrium studies have been carried out. The experimental data was analyzed using equilibrium isotherm and kinetic models. The thermodynamic parameters (∆G°, ∆H°, and ∆S°) were also determined using the equilibrium constant value obtained at different temperatures. Results show that this adsorbent is effective and much better or even superior than many sorbents for removal of nitrate and nitrite. The prepared sorbent as solid-phase extractant was successfully applied for the extraction of nitrate from actual water samples.