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Glafo, Box 5157,
SE-350 05 Växjö
SWEDEN

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ANTIMONY IMMOBILISATION (P9914)

The aim is to achieve a ten-fold decrease of the total content of antimony in process water from the glass industry.

Background
The glass industry is in need of purifying process water from antimony. By using zeolites heavy metals can be separated.

Zeolites are a group of alumina silicates, which can be optimised to adsorb metal ions. Zeolites contain a three dimensional network of alumina, silicon, and oxygen atoms giving rise to a set of channels and cavities, which for every zeolite has a defined diameter (0.3-1.2 nm). That results in porosity, that is specific for each zeolite.

As the zeolites have channels with different diameters the adsorption for a certain zeolite is limited by the size of the molecules to be adsorbed. This is used for e.g. drying, purifying and separation of gases in industrial processes.

In aqueous solutions antimony is present in two different oxidation states, trivalent and pentavalent. The oxidation state influences among other things the toxicity and the adsorption ability of the metal. The toxicity of the trivalent antimony is ten times higher than of pentavalent antimony.

Realisation
Initially we will verify the analysis methods for antimony and choose an appropriate zeolite. Then we will study the pH depending of adsorption and how the adsorption is influenced by the oxidation state of antimony.


CURRENT PROJECTS