Recovery of heterocyclic amines from dilute aqueous waste streams

Abstract

The adsorption of heterocyclic amines, such as morpholine, pyridine, picolines, quinoline, and isoquinoline from dilute aqueous streams, with or without electrolytes and at different pH, on activated carbons and polymeric adsorbent (XAD-4, Rohm and Haas), was successfully accomplished using fixed bed systems. A mathematical model, based on external mass transfer and pore diffusion, is used for forecasting theoretical breakthrough profiles, which have been compared with experimental results and 'by-best fit' comparison effective pore diffusion coefficient, has been found out for each adsorbate-adsorbent system. The loaded adsorbents were regenerated with an organic solvent (e.g., methanol) efficiently. The amines can be recovered by distillation from the eluted solution.