Journal of Environmental Sciences 2011, 23(12) 1962–1969

Organic pollutants removal from 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water using

low cost activated coke
Mohe Zhang1,2 , Quanlin Zhao2 , Zhengfang Ye2,∗

1. Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen
Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China. E-mail: [email protected]
2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Peking University, The Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences,
Ministry of Education, Beijing 100871, China

Received 04 December 2010; revised 21 February 2011; accepted 04 March 2011

Abstract
We treated 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water from the Chinese explosive industry with activated coke (AC) from lignite. Since the
composition of TNT red water was very complicated, chemical oxygen demand (COD) was used as the index for evaluating treatment
efficiency. This study focused on sorption kinetics and equilibrium sorption isotherms of AC for the removal of COD from TNT red
water, and the changes of water quality before and after adsorption were evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography,
UV-Vis spectra and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. The results showed that the sorption kinetics of COD removal from TNT
red water onto AC fitted well with the pseudo second-order model. The adsorption process was an exothermic and physical process.
The sorption isotherm was in good agreement with Redlich-Peterson isotherm. At the conditions of initial pH = 6.28, 20°C and 3 hr
of agitation, under 160 g/L AC, 64.8% of COD was removed. The removal efficiencies of 2,4-dinitrotoluene-3-sulfonate (2,4-DNT-3-
SO3 − ) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene-5-sulfonate (2,4-DNT-5-SO3 − ) were 80.5% and 84.3%, respectively. After adsorption, the acute toxicity
of TNT red water reduced greatly, compared with that of unprocessed TNT red water.

Key words: TNT red water; activated coke; adsorption; acute toxicity
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-0742(10)60619-5
Citation: Zhang M H, Zhao Q L, Ye Z F, 2011. Organic pollutants removal from 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water using low cost
activated coke. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 23(12): 1962–1969

Introduction TNT red water is a highly hazardous and toxic wastewater,

which is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is an important and widely used Agency as a RCRA-regulated hazardous waste based on its
explosive in the world (Clark and Boopathy, 2007; Boparai reactivity. Direct discharge of untreated TNT red water into
et al., 2008; Kalderis et al., 2008; Lee and Jeong, 2009; waterways or soils causes severe water and soil pollution.
Nyanhongo et al., 2009). During the TNT manufacturing Many methods for TNT red water treatment have been
process, unsymmetrical TNTs produced from the nitration studied. Hao et al. (1993a, 1994) studied the treatment
of toluene must be removed to meet military specifications of TNT red water by wet air oxidation (WAO), which
(Akhavan, 2004). In the purification stage, sodium sulfite demonstrated WAO to be available for TNT red water
is added to react with unsymmetrical TNT to produce treatment. Incineration is the most widely used process, but
dinitrotoluene sulfonates (DNTS’), such as 2,4-DNT-3- the cost of fuel is high and this process usually generates
SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 − , which are water-soluble and secondary pollution during treatment (Lewis et al., 2004).
easily separated from symmetrical TNT. The wastewater Zhao et al. (2010) have studied the possibility of vacuum
after phase separation has a dark red color and is com- distillation to treat TNT red water.
monly called “TNT red water”. Dinitrotoluene sulfonates Biological treatment has been widely used in wastewater
like 2,4-DNT-3-SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 − are the main treatment. As TNT red water is highly toxic to microor-
organic components in TNT red water (Xiao et al., 2006; ganisms and contains high concentrations of many organic
Yinon and Zitrin, 1996). In addition, TNT red water also and inorganic compounds. One way to solve this would be
contains incomplete nitration products, such as 2,4-DNT for the TNT red water to undergo a cost-effective prepro-
and 2,6-DNT, and complicated toxic byproducts formed cess before biological treatment. Adsorption technique is
during the nitration and purification stages. Therefore, widely used for wastewater treatment due to its versatility
and efficiency in separating a wide range of chemical
* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] compounds and its easily operational procedure. Activated
No. 12 Organic pollutants removal from 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water using low cost activated coke 1963

carbon is one of the main adsorbents, but adsorption by 1.3 Cost analysis
activated carbon for TNT red water demonstrates difficulty
A 50-mL TNT red water sample was added to a 250-mL
of carbon regeneration by chemical means and the hazard
triangular flask with stopper, into which 0.5 g of four kinds
of thermal regeneration (Walsh et al., 1973). Activated
of adsorbents were added. The experiments were carried
coke (AC) is an adsorbent material used as a substitute for
out in an air-bath shaker bath at pH 6.28, 25°C and agitated
activated carbon, and is produced from naturally occurring
for 3 hr. The water samples were centrifuged at 8000 r/min
carbonaceous materials like lignite, petroleum coke, wood,
for 10 min, and the supernate was then analyzed.
and other biomass. Activated coke is usually made from
low micropore volume macro- and meso-porous materials, 1.4 Water quality detection
which favor adsorbing contaminants from liquid phase
Since the composition of TNT red water is very compli-
(Kojima et al., 2002; Wieβner et al., 1998). In previous
cated, COD was used to evaluate the treatment efficiency of
research, AC was proved to be an effective adsorbent of
TNT red water by potassium dichromate oxidation (Hach
organic pollutants from coking wastewater (Shawwa et al.,
Heating System, Hach Corporation, USA).
2001). However, no studies have reported on the adsorption
The concentrations of 2,4-DNT-3-SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-
treatment of TNT red water by using AC.
5-SO3 − before and after adsorption were determined by
The aim of this study was to investigate the adsorption
HPLC (Agilent 1100 liquid chromatography, Agilent Cor-
properties of AC for the treatment of TNT red water.
poration, USA). The sample was detected at 230 nm, with
Sorption kinetics and equilibrium isotherms were studied.
the Agilent SB-Aq column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). The
The changes in the chemical constitution of TNT red water
sample amount of injection was 20 μL and the flow rate
before and after adsorption onto AC were evaluated by gas
was 1.0 mL/min (Preiss et al., 2009). After being filtered
chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), HPLC high
by a 0.45-μm membrane and diluted 30 times, all samples
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and UV-Vis
were detected by HPLC.
spectra. The acute toxicities before and after adsorption
The UV-Vis spectra of the TNT red water samples
were investigated by bacterium bioluminescence assays.
before and after adsorption were measured in the range of
190–1100 nm using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (UV-
1800, Shimazu, Japan) with a 1 cm quartz cell.
1 Materials and methods A 6890N/5973 GC/MS system (Agilent Corporation,
USA) was used to determine the changes in the organic
1.1 Materials compounds in TNT red water before and after adsorption.
The TNT red water samples were treated by liquid-liquid
The TNT red water was obtained from the Dongfang extraction using CH2 Cl2 as the extractant (Li et al., 2003).
Chemical Corporation (Hubei Province, China). It had a A sample of 1.0 μL was injected, operated from 40 to
dark red color with complicated compositions and high 280°C at a programming rate of 2.0°C/min with the DB-
chemical oxygen demand (COD) (9.66 × 103 mg/L). The 35MS capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm). Pure
water samples used in the experiments were diluted ten helium gas was used as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 1.0
times with distilled water. The initial pH was 6.28. mL/min.
AC made by lignite was obtained from the Datang Yima
Coke Plant (Henan Province, China). The particle range 1.5 Acute toxicity test
was 0.45–0.90 mm, surface area was 408 m2 /g, total pore A BHP9511 water quality toxicity analyzer (Beijing
volume was 0.266 cm3 /g, and average pore diameter was Hamatsu Photon Techniques Inc., China) was used to
2.61 nm, which were measured by N2 adsorption isotherm detect the acute toxicity of TNT red water before and after
using an ASAP 2010 Micromeritics instrument. adsorption by determining the luminescence inhibition
The AC was washed several times with distilled water, ratio of Vibrio qinghaiensis sp. Nov. (Ma et al., 1999),
and then dried in an oven at 105°C for 48 hr and stored in a freshwater luminescent bacterium separated from body
an air-tight glass bottle for later use. surfaces of Gymnocypris przewalskii living in Qinghai
The luminescent bacterium Vibrio qinghaiensis sp. Nov. Lake, China.
was provided by Beijing Hamatsu Photon Techniques Inc., The luminescence inhibition ratio (LIR) was calculated
China. according to Eq. (1):
1.2 Adsorption experiments
The batch adsorption experiments were performed using
50 mL of TNT red water and 1.0 g of AC in 250 mL RLIref − RLIs
triangular flasks with a stopper. The experiments were LIR = × 100% (1)
RLIref
carried out at 20, 25, 30 and 40°C in an air-bath shaker
without pH adjustment. The COD was determined at
different contact time. The initial concentrations of TNT
red water samples ranged from 3.22 × 103 to 1.60 × 104 where, RLI is the relative light intensity of the lumines-
mg/L for equilibrium isotherms determination. Effects of cence emitted from luminescent bacteria, and ref and s
AC dosage on COD removal were also determined. represent the reference and sample, respectively.
1964 Journal of Environmental Sciences 2011, 23(12) 1962–1969 / Mohe Zhang et al. Vol. 23

2 Results and discussion 60

2.1 Sorption kinetics of COD in TNT red water

Sorption capacity (mg/g)

In this study, the pseudo first- and second-order models 45
and the intraparticle diffusion model were used to analyze
the adsorption mechanism of COD onto AC from TNT red
30
water.
The pseudo first-order model (Ho and McKay, 1998a)
20°C
can be expressed as Eq. (2):
15 25°C
k1 t 30°C
log(q1 − qt ) = logq1 − (2) 40°C
2.303
0
where, q1 (mg/g) and qt (mg/g) are the amount of COD 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Time (min)
adsorbed at equilibrium and at time t (min), respectively;
and k1 (min−1 ) is the rate constant of the pseudo first-order Fig. 1 Kinetic curves of COD onto AC at various temperatures.

sorption. The straight line plots of log(q1 − qt ) against t

have been tested to obtain parameters of k1 and q1 . the initial sorption rate h decreased from 3.54 to 1.46
The pseudo second-order model (Ho and McKay, 1999) mg/(g·min) when the temperature increased from 20 to
can be expressed as: 40°C, which suggested that chemisorption reaction was
not predominant in the rate controlling step. Therefore,
t 1 1 the adsorption process was a physical one rather than a
= + t (3)
2
qt k2 q2 q2 chemical one (Ho and McKay, 1998b).
Figure 2 plots the amount of COD adsorbed per unit
The initial sorption rate h (mg/(g·min)) can be calculated weight of AC against the square root of time. The plot
by Eq. (4): in the initial 30 min was due to the diffusion of adsorbate
through the solution to the external surface of the adsorbent
h = k2 q22 (4) or the boundary layer diffusion of solute molecules (Kumar
et al., 2003). Good linearization of the data, as shown in
where, q2 (mg/g) is the amount of COD adsorbed at
Table 1, was observed for the initial phase of the reaction
equilibrium; and k2 (g/(mg·min)) is the rate constant of
in accordance with expected behavior, which indicated that
pseudo-second order sorption. The straight line plots of
intraparticle diffusion was the rate limiting step (Weber and
t/qt against t have been tested to obtain parameters of k2 , h
Morris, 1963).
and q2 .
Intraparticle diffusion (Weber and Morris, 1963) was 2.2 Equilibrium isotherms
determined by Eq. (5):
Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson isotherms
qt = k 3 t 0.5
(5) were used to examine the adsorption mechanism of COD
onto AC from TNT red water.
where, k3 (mg/(g·min0.5 )) is the intraparticle diffusion rate At constant temperature, COD adsorbed onto AC will
constant. be in equilibrium with COD in bulk solution. The satu-
Figure 1 presents the dependence of sorption capacity rated monolayer isotherm can be represented as Langmuir
on contact time at different temperatures. It shows that isotherm (Langmuir, 1916; Kinniburgh, 1986):
the sorption capacity at different temperatures increased
with contact time, quickly in the first 30 min and then
gradually with increasing contact time until the adsorption 60
reached equilibrium at 3 hr. It can also be observed
that the lower the temperature, the higher the saturated 50
Sorption capacity (mg/g)

sorption capacity. When adsorption reached equilibrium

at 20°C, the saturated sorption capacity was 60.5 mg/g. 40
Generally, if adsorption is a chemical process, sorption
capacity increases with increasing temperature due to some 30
chemical adsorptions with a chemical reaction or bond
being involved in the adsorption process (Acemioǧu, 2004; 20°C
20
Mittal et al., 2005). The results showed that sorption capac- 25°C
ity increased with the decreasing temperature, indicating 30°C
10 40°C
that the adsorption of COD on AC might be an exothermic
process. 2 8 4 106 12 14
The fitting results presented a better compliance with Time (min0.5)
the pseudo second-order model, as shown in Table 1. Fig. 2 Intraparticle diffusion plots for the adsorption of COD onto AC at
The regression coefficients were higher than 0.993 and various temperatures.
No. 12 Organic pollutants removal from 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water using low cost activated coke 1965

Table 1 Kinetics parameters for the adsorption of COD onto AC

T qe, exp Pseudo first-order model Pseudo second-order model Intraparticle diffusion
(°C) (mg/g) q1 (mg/g) k1 (min−1 ) R21 q2 (mg/g) k2 (g/(mg·min)) h (mg/(g·min)) R22 k3 (mg/(g·min0.5 )) R23

20 58.8 33.2 1.71 × 10−2 0.900 64.7 8.44 × 10−4 3.54 0.993 0.691 0.928
25 46.2 36.0 3.08 × 10−2 0.933 54.1 9.00 × 10−4 2.63 0.990 0.345 0.928
30 40.3 25.0 2.00 × 10−2 0.992 45.8 9.82 × 10−4 2.06 0.997 0.801 0.950
40 33.6 26.4 2.11 × 10−2 0.928 38.1 1.01 × 10−2 1.46 0.995 0.214 0.997

60
Ce 1 1
= Ce + (6)
qe qm Ka qm 50
where, Ce (mg/L) is the equilibrium concentration; qe

Sorption capacity (mg/g)

(mg/g) is the equilibrium amount of COD adsorbed; qm
40
(mg/g) is qe for a complete monolayer, and Ka (L/mg) is
the sorption equilibrium constant.
The empirical Freundlich isotherm (Freundlich, 1906), 30
based on adsorption on heterogeneous surface, can be 20°C
derived by assuming a logarithmic decrease in the enthalpy 25°C
20
of sorption with the increase in the fraction of occupied 30°C
sites, and is as follows 40°C
10
0 4000
12000 8000
16000 20000
1
logqe = logKF + logCe (7) COD (mg/L)
n Fig. 3 Isotherm curves of sorption equilibrium COD onto AC at various
where, KF and 1/n are the Freundlich constant character- temperatures.
istics of the system, indicating the sorption capacity and
sorption intensity, respectively. 2.3 Effect of AC dose on COD removal
The Redlich-Peterson isotherm (Redlich and Peterson, Figure 4 presents the effect of AC dose on equilibri-
1959) incorporates the features of the Langmuir and um sorption capacity and COD removal efficiency. The
Freundlich isotherms, which has a linear dependence on removal efficiency of COD increased quickly from 7.93%
concentration in the numerator and an exponential function to 64.8%, when the concentration of AC increased from
in the denominator. It can be expressed as follows: 10 to 160 g/L. This was because the number of active
sites and surface areas increased with the increase in AC,
ACe which was helpful for removal of COD. The sorption
qe = (8)
1 + BCeg capacity gradually decreased from 80.6 to 40.1 mg/g,
indicating that the addition of AC in the solution decreased
where, three isotherm constants, namely, A (L/mg)g , B the sorption capacity of AC. After adsorption, the pH
(L/g), and g (0 < g < 1), characterize the isotherm. Eq. (8) of effluents did not change. The changes in 2,4-DNT-3-
can be linearized by taking logarithms: SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 − in the samples before and after
adsorption were detected by HPLC, indicating that most
Ce of the two dinitrotoluene sulfonates were removed. The
ln(A − 1) = g ln(Ce ) + ln(B) (9)
qe concentrations of 2,4-DNT-3-SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 −
decreased from 2.11 × 103 and 3.40 × 103 mg/L to 412 and
where, A, B, and g can be evaluated from the linear plot
533 mg/L, and the removal efficiencies were 80.5% and
represented by Eq. (9) using the solver add-in with Mi-
84.3%, respectively. Thus, AC effectively removed the 2,4-
crosoft’s spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel (Ho and Ofomaja,
DNT-3-SO3 − and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 − from TNT red water.
2006).
Figure 3 presents the isotherm curves of COD onto AC 2.4 Chemical variations of TNT red water before and
at different initial concentrations and temperatures. The after adsorption
equilibrium sorption capacity increased with decreasing
2.4.1 UV-Vis spectra
temperature and increased with increasing initial concen-
tration. Table 2 shows the fitting results of the experimental Figure 5 presents the UV-Vis spectra of samples before
data by different isotherms. The correlation coefficients and after adsorption with the dilution ratio of 10,000. An
for the Redlich-Peterson isotherm were higher than those absorption peak at 290 nm was observed in TNT red water,
for the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, which might indicating that it might contain large amounts of aromatic
be due to the complexity of TNT red water composition. compounds (Hao et al., 1993b). Absorbing light in the
Therefore, the Redlich-Peterson isotherm might be more visible region (400–800 nm) mean that compounds in TNT
useful for simulating the complicated adsorption process red water looked colored. After adsorption, the absorbance
of TNT red water by AC. at 290 nm was reduced from 0.141 to 0.046, indicating
1966 Journal of Environmental Sciences 2011, 23(12) 1962–1969 / Mohe Zhang et al. Vol. 23

Table 2 Isotherm parameters for the adsorption of COD on AC

T (°C) qm (mg/g) Langmuir Freundlich Redlich-Peterson

Ka (L/mg) R24 KF n R25 A (L/mg)g B (L/g) g R26

20 59.5 9.94 × 10−4 0.991 4.17 3.64 0.980 0.484 –2.51 0.762 0.998
25 57.9 9.62 × 10−4 0.992 4.12 3.67 0.983 0.989 –1.55 0.737 0.998
30 55.5 8.78 × 10−4 0.982 4.44 3.88 0.980 1.40 –1.28 0.755 0.997
40 47.4 1.27 × 10−3 0.994 5.35 4.40 0.964 0.357 –3.24 0.830 0.998

80 adsorption, especially 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene which was the

90
qe most easily adsorbed onto AC.
80 Removal of COD
60 2.5 Acute toxicity test

Removal of COD (%)

70 Due to the complicated composition of toxic organic
qe (mg/g)

40 pollutants in TNT red water, the dilution ratio was deter-

60 mined to evaluate the variations of acute toxicity before
and after adsorption. The greater the dilution ratio at
50 20 certain LIR, the higher the toxicity of the water sample.
In this study, the dilution ratio at 50% LIR was used as the
40 evaluation criteria.
0 Figure 7 presents the dependence of luminescence inhi-
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
AC (g/L)
bition ratio on dilution ratio before and after adsorption.
It is shown that even though TNT red water samples were
Fig. 4 Effect of AC dose on COD removal efficiency and equilibrium
sorption capacity. diluted ten times, almost 100% of LIR was obtained, which
shows its high acute toxicity. When the dilution ratio was
that most aromatic compounds might be removed after greater than 25.1, however, it began to decrease obviously.
adsorption. For effluent adsorbed by AC, LIR decreased quickly when
the dilution ratio was greater than ten. Before and after
2.4.2 GC/MS analysis
The GC/MS was used to detect volatile and semi- 150
volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs) with a 9
molecular weights less than 500 atomic mass units (amu). 125
Figure 6a illustrates gas chromatography of TNT red water
before adsorption by GC/MS. Eleven non-polar organ- 100
Abundance (×104)

ic compounds were detected, with the relative content

of 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene the highest at 66.6% (Table 3). 75
After adsorption, as shown in Fig. 6b, many non-polar 4
organic pollutants were removed. Only seven organic 50 5
compounds were detected and the relative content of 4-
7
methyl-2,6-dinitro-phenol was 19.3%, higher than that of 25 6 8 10
1,3,5-trinitrobenzene at 4.71%. From the above results, it 1 3 11
2
can be concluded that the concentrations of most non-polar 0
50 60 70 80 90 100
organic compounds were reduced to different extents after
Time (min)
1.4 150

Before adsorption b
1.2 125
After adsorption
1.0 100
Abundance (×104)
Absorbance

0.8
75
4
0.6
50 5
0.4 6
25 7
3
0.2 1 2
0
50 70 60
80 90 100
0.0
200 400 600 800 1000 Time (min)
Wavelength (nm) Fig. 6 Gas chromatography of TNT red water before (a) and after (b)
Fig. 5 UV-Vis spectra before and after adsorption. adsorption.
No. 12 Organic pollutants removal from 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) red water using low cost activated coke 1967

Table 3 Organic compounds analysis before and after adsorption on AC

Before adsorption After adsorption

Peak Retention Relative Compound Peak Retention Relative Compound
time content time content
(min) (%) (min) (%)

1 56.5 0.61 2-Methyl-1,3-dinitro-benzene 1 56.4 0.65 2-Methyl-1,3-dinitro-benzene

2 60.0 0.26 1-Methyl-2,4-dinitro-phenol 2 60.0 2.75 1-Methyl-2,4-dinitro-phenol
3 61.1 1.11 1-Methyl-2,4-dinitro-benzene 3 61.1 0.43 1-Methyl-2,4-dinitro-benzene
4 64.3 2.57 2,3-Dihydro-6-nitro-1,4-benzodioxin 4 64.3 15.7 2,3-Dihydro-6-nitro-1,4-benzodioxin
5 65.3 3.93 4-Methyl-2,6-dinitro-phenol 5 65.3 19.3 4-Methyl-2,6-dinitro-phenol
6 65.7 0.82 2-Methyl-4,6-dinitro-phenol 6 65.7 6.60 2-Methyl-4,6-dinitro-phenol
7 73.5 5.18 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene 7 77.0 4.71 1,3,5-Trinitrobenzene
8 74.4 2.92 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene
9 77.0 66.6 1,3,5-Trinitrobenzene
10 86.9 2.13 1-Azido-4-nitro-benzene
11 89.1 0.65 3,5-Dinitro-p-toluidine

Table 4 Comparison of different adsorbents

adsorption, the dilution ratio at 50% LIR were 250 and
45.4, respectively, indicating that the acute toxicity of Adsorbent Sorption capacity Price Sorption cost
TNT red water was greatly reduced compared with that of (mg COD/g) (CNY/kg) (CNY/g COD)
unprocessed TNT red water. 1# GAC 85.3 31 0.36
2# GAC 10.4 10 0.96
2.6 Cost analysis
RS-50B 136 45 0.33
Three other commercial adsorbents, 1# granular activat- AC 60.5 0.50 0.0083
ed carbon (GAC), 2# GAC, and RS-50B adsorption resin,
produced by Beijing Dali Fine Chemical Company, Tian- 31 CNY/kg, respectively, which were much higher than
jing Fuchen Chemical Regent Company and Xi’an Putian that of AC (0.5 CNY/kg). The sorption cost for AC was
Biological Technology Company, respectively, were also only 0.0083 CNY/g COD, which was much lower than
tested in this study. Table 4 shows the sorption capacity that of RS-50B (0.33 CNY/g COD), GAC (0.36 CNY/g
and the sorption cost of COD for the four adsorbents. It COD), and 2# GAC (0.96 CNY/g COD). Thereby, it can
can be seen that the sorption capacity of RS-50B was the be concluded that AC is a cheap and effective absorbent
highest and 1# GAC was a little higher than that of AC. for the treatment of TNT red water.
However, the costs of RS-50B and 1# GAC were 45 and

a b
100 100

80 80
Luminescence inhibition ratio (%)

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0

-20 -20

1 10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000

Dilution ratio Dilution ratio
Fig. 7 Dependence of luminescence inhibition ratio on dilution ratio before (a) and after (b) adsorption.
1968 Journal of Environmental Sciences 2011, 23(12) 1962–1969 / Mohe Zhang et al. Vol. 23

3 Conclusions Ho Y S, McKay G, 1998b. Kinetic models for the sorption of

dye from aqueous solution by wood. Process Safety and
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The authors would like to thank Prof. Zhijie Zhao for
Environmental Management, 70(4): 291–307.
her analytical support and Yi Zhang for HPLC analysis. Li Y M, Gu G W, Zhao J F, Yu H Q, Qiu Y L, Peng Y Z, 2003.
The efforts of Yuchen Gao and Shini Zhu during the Treatment of coke-plant wastewater by biofilm systems for
experimental process are gratefully acknowledged. removal of organic compounds and nitrogen. Chemosphere,
52(6): 997–1005.
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