Evaluating the performance of natural fibers impregnated with metallic nanoparticles to remove copper from aqueous media

The objective of this thesis research is to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of a previously developed filter in removing contaminants from water. The filter was created as a technology that successfully removes 90% of mercury from coal fired flue gas. The filter owes its success to its unique design which incorporates metallic nanoparticles onto the filter's natural fiber structure.;This research utilized three bench scale experiments to evaluate the filter's performance at removing copper from contaminated water which is a contaminant that causes many environmental problems in the Butte Montana area.;A synthetic water batch test was performed that highlighted the filter's ability to remove copper from synthetic copper solutions with copper concentrations spanning a range from 1-120 mg/L.;A natural water batch test was performed that proved the filter's ability to remove metals from storm water. The filter removed copper from storm water that had an initial total recoverable concentration of 0.0323 mg/L to a concentration beneath the ICP-OES MDL of 0.0046 mg/L, over 85.8% removal. The filter also removed zinc from the storm water that had an initial total recoverable zinc concentration of 0.3539 mg/L to a concentration of 0.0491 mg/L, a maximum of 86.1% removal.;A continuous flow experiment proved the filters ability to remove metals from actual contaminated water during conditions of continuous flow. The continuous flow test revealed that the filter removed copper and zinc from storm water during the one day continuous flow test. The maximum copper reduction was 44.5% and the maximum zinc reduction was 89.2%.