COMPLEX SORBENT FOR TREATMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER AND OIL-CONTAMINATED SOILS

The use of natural and synthetic sorbents for polluted water treatment from heavy metals and oil products is one of the most practical methods of natural and waste water treatment. The main advantages of adsorption of polluted water treatment with sorbents are a sufficiently high degree of purification, costeffectiveness and the possibility of repeated use of the sorbent. The use of natural renewable raw materials is of great interest in the development of commercially available complex sorbents capable of sorbing both inorganic compounds and organic pollutants (petroleum products) and facilitating the biodegradation of the latter to carbon dioxide and water using natural regional microorganisms. A new complex sorbent on the basis of rice husk and shungite has been obtained. It is capable of effectively sorbing heavy metals, oil, surfactants (neonol AF 9-12) and activating subsequent biodegradation (decomposition) of oil and oil products under the action of an indigenous association of oil-oxidizing microorganisms. The sorption characteristics of the sorbent in relation to oil, neonol AF 9-12, cadmium(II), lead(II) and strontium(II) ions have been determined. It was found that the obtained sorbent in terms of oil capacity, which amounted to 1.769 g/g, exceeds shungite and rice husk by 3.9 and 1.1 times, respectively. The study of the sorbent's effect on the process of biodegradation of diesel fuel hydrocarbons showed that the introduction of the sorbent onto the soil surface leads to a decrease in the content of oil products by 53 % in 1 month, with natural degradation of oil products – 12 %. The sorbent obtained on the basis of shungite and rice husk has sufficiently high capacity characteristics, promotes biodegradation of diesel fuel under the action of natural microorganisms and is promising for the elimination of emergency oil spills and wastewater treatment.