Nitrate removal from water by adsorption on Glutaraldehyde crosslinked Chitosan

In recent years, nitrate concentration increases in drinking water and many studies have explored methods to remove nitrate from drinking water. One of the ways to remove nitrate is to use adsorbent. In this study, Chitosan modified with Glutaraldehyde was used to remove nitrate from water. Chitosan is a good adsorbent because it has amine and hydroxyl groups. In order to investigate the effect of adsorbent efficacy, the role of contact time, absorbent dose and nitrate concentration were studied. The results showed that by increasing the dose of adsorbent, nitrate removal increases due to the raising functional groups and increasing active sites. Increasing the concentration of nitrate also increases the absorption capacity. Moreover, increasing the contact time rises the probability of interaction as well as occupying active adsorbent sites, and eventually increases the nitrate removal. The results show that Chitosan modified with Glutardehyde is an effective absorbent. If Chitosan is protonated with acetic acid, it will have higher nitrate removal efficiency than the non-protonic Chitosan.