Adsorption of Volatile Phenol in Coking Wastewater by Diatomite

Coal process wastewater that discharged from coal conversion processes usually contains volatile phenol in high concentration. As a natural mineral, diatomite demonstrates its excellent adsorption performance especially in organic pollutants removal. Diatomite was used for phenol removal in cokingwastewater by adsorption and the effect of diatomite dosage, contact time, salinity, intitial pH conditon and reaction temperature were investigated. It was observed that the removal rate of phenol increased with an increase in the diatomite dosage and contact time. The solution salinity could inhibit the phenol adsorption onto diatomite slightly by cometitive adsorption. Alkaline conditions were especially favorable for phenol removal. The increased reaction temperature could improve phenol adsorption to a large extent as well.