Kinetic Studies on Enhanced Mercury Adsorption in Zeolite Nay and Waste Fcc Catalyst

Mercury (II) removal was studied using two different adsorbents: waste FCC catalyst and NaY zeolite. Those materials were characterized using TGA, XRD, IR, calorimetry and BET. The zeolite superficial area is 773 m2/g and that of the FCC catalyst is 135 m2/g. The maximum adsorption capacity was 1.8561 mg/g for the FCC catalyst and 2.6845 mg/g for the zeolite. The equilibrium isotherms were described with the langmuir and freundlich linear models. Besides, the kinetics was described using Lagergren and Pseudo-second order models, the latter fit better the results. After the adsorbents were used, they were regenerated acquiring their superficial areas as 675 and 87 m2/g for the zeolite and the FCC catalyst, respectively.