Bromate removal from water by acid activated and surfactant enriched Red Mud - the case of cooling water.

Red Mud is a hazardous by-product of the Bayer process, used to produce alumina from bauxite, with ability to adsorb anions from water. Acid activation and enrichment with CetylTrimethylAmmonium Chloride (CTAC), a cationic surfactant, are employed to enable it to remove bromate initially from spiked double-distilled water. CTAC enrichment is found to substantially improve Red Mud's bromate removal ability in comparison to acid activation alone. Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the enrichment process. Maximum CTAC loading is 0.037 g per g acid activated Red Mud (AARM). Adsorption is faster after CTAC enrichment. pH increase is found to adversely affect both AARM and acid activated CTAC enriched Red Mud's (CTAC-AARM) bromate removal capability, yet CTAC-AARM's ability proves more resistant to pH changes. Adsorption data fit best the Langmuir isotherm model for both adsorbers. The R