Adsorbent characteristic of polyvinyl alcohol, zeolite, and activated carbon on desalination of seawater

Water Scarcity, insufficient freshwater quality and access to water have become major issues in the global, including Indonesia. Meanwhile, approximately more than 70% earth’s surface cover up by seawater, as one of potential remaining natural water resources. Several seawater desalination technologies have been developed during the last several decades to augment the supply of freshwater, such as multi-effect distillation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis and adsorption. In general objective of this study is to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of adsorption material type in desalination technology. The study used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), zeolite (Zeo) and activated carbon (AC) as adsorbent. The adsorption process was performed in a fixed bed column with a constant seawater sample flow rate of 4 mL/min. Meanwhile, the process variables were the adsorbent mass used (50, 75 and 100 grams) and the adsorbate salinity concentration in 2; 2.5 and 3%. Each process was sampled every 10 minutes for 100 minutes adsorption process. The NaCl content was analyzed using the argentometric method for each sample. Further, the calculation of adsorption capacity uses the Yoon-Nelson method. The results showed that variations in the concentration of adsorbate salinity influenced on the type of adsorbent used. PVA, Zeo and AC were more effectively used on adsorbates with salinity concentrations of 2%, 2.5% and 3% respectively according to the resulting adsorption capacity values. Therefore, PVA, Zeo, and AC as adsorbents can reduce the salinity of seawater to provide fresh water.