Resinas poliméricas porosas têm sido amplamente empregadas nos processos de tratamento de água devido a vantagens como elevada seletividade e possibilidade de regeneração e modificação química, permitindo a obtenção de um material com maior seletividade/especificidade. No presente estudo, resinas poliméricas porosas de metacrilato de metila-divinilbenzeno (MMA-DVB), estireno-divinilbenzeno (Sty-DVB) e estireno-divinilbenzeno sulfonada (S-Sty-DVB) foram sintetizadas, caracterizadas e avaliadas quanto à eficiência de remoção de petróleo e de anilina contidos na água. Nos testes empregando-se água oleosa, foram avaliadas colunas contendo somente um tipo de resina (Sty-DVB e S-Sty-DVB) e colunas contendo recheios mistos (MMA-DVB/S-Sty-DVB e Sty-DVB/S-Sty-DVB), frente à remoção de óleo e dos cátions sódio e cálcio presentes na água oleosa. As colunas com recheio misto apresentaram melhor desempenho, devido à diversidade de hidrofilicidade do sistema adsorvente, tendo sido possível remover uma gama mais extensa de contaminantes. A remoção de anilina presente na água foi possível com o uso da resina de estireno-divinilbenzeno sulfonada, em razão da reação ácido-base entre a anilina e os sítios ácidos da resina. Uma redução gradual, e não abrupta, da eficiência desta resina na remoção de anilina deve-se à interação de moléculas de anilina com o sal de anilínio formado após a saturação dos sitos ácidos da resina.

Polymeric resins have been widely used in water treatment processes due to their advantages, such as high selectivity and possibility of regeneration and chemical modification, allowing obtaining a material with greater selectivity/specificity. In the present study, porous polymeric resins of methyl methacrylate-divinylbenzene (MMA-DVB), styrene-divinylbenzene (Sty-DVB) and sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene (S-Sty-DVB) were synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their efficiency in removing oil and aniline contained in water. In the tests with oily water, the efficiency in removing oil and cations of sodium and calcium was assessed with columns containing only one type of resin (Sty-DVB or S-Sty-DVB) and columns containing blended filling (MMA-DVB/S-Sty-DVB and Sty-DVB/S-Sty-DVB). The columns containing the mixture performed better, due to the diverse hydrophilicity of the adsorbent system, allowing removal of a wider range of contaminants. The removal of aniline from the water was possible with the use of the sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene because of the reaction between the aniline and acidic sites of the resin. The efficiency of this resin in removing aniline declined gradually rather than abruptly, due to the interaction of the aniline molecules with the aniline salt formed after saturation of the resin's acidic sites.

The discharge of oily wastewaters in the environment is steadily increasing, causing serious damages. Among various treatment methods, adsorption is generally considered the most appropriate, since it can remove both organic and inorganic pollutants. Adsorption using low-cost alternative biopolymers for removal of contaminants from wastewater has been widely investigated. In this context, chitosan has been drawing particular attention because, among its many applications, it can be used in the treatment of aqueous effluents. In this study, microspheres were prepared by reticulation of chitosan with sodium triphosphate (STP) and studied for the treatment of water containing crude oil. The microspheres were regular and had surface pores. These microspheres were packed in treatment columns and their ability to remove oil was measured with a fluorometer, by the difference in the oil concentration before and after passing through the column. The microspheres that presented porosity about 80 % were highly efficient in oil removal, with rates above 90%.

Magnetic composites have a wide range of potential technological applications; however the evaluation of this material for extraction of phenolic compounds has not been sufficiently studied. Due to its high toxicity and solubility the removal of phenolic compounds from the aquatic environments has critical importance. In this work polymeric composites were prepared by anchoring Ni and Co particles on sulfonatedpoly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) PS-DVB. The PS-DVB beads were synthesized by suspension polymerization and reacted with acetyl sulfate, aiming to obtain sulfonated copolymers. All materials were capable of removing phenol from aqueous solutions. The phenol adsorption kinetics was influenced by the polymer porosity and swelling capacity in water. The composite derivative of the more porous copolymer impregnated with nickel (C1SNi) was the most efficient in phenol removal, with the sorption equilibrium being established more rapidly than for the other composites. The pseudo second-order model was more adequate to describe the phenol adsorption process for the composite C1SNi. The Langmuir model describes successfully the phenol removal by this composite.