1 School of Chemical and Blasting Engineering, Anhui Provincial International Joint Research Center of Modern Environmental Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, P. R. China.
2 Key Laboratory of Acidified Soil Amelioration and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Arable Land Improvement and Quality Enhancement, Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System for the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Soil and Fertilizer and Resources and Environment, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang, 330200, P. R. China.
3 Anhui Shuanghuai Environmental Technology Co., LTD, Bengbu 233002, P.R. China.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2025.16.2.2323
Received on 27 June 2025; revised on 09 August 2025; accepted on 11 August 2025
Ammonia nitrogen contamination in water systems poses significant environmental challenges due to its toxicity and persistence. Natural zeolites, particularly clinoptilolite, offer promising adsorption capabilities owing to their porous structure and ion-exchange properties. This review summarizes recent advances in the use of modified natural zeolites for ammonia nitrogen removal, focusing on various modification strategies such as acid treatment, alkali activation, surfactant functionalization, and metal loading. It also highlights the influencing factors affecting adsorption efficiency, such as pH, contact time, competing ions, and zeolite dosage. The review further discusses the regeneration and reusability of modified zeolites, outlining challenges and future directions for optimizing these materials in large-scale water treatment applications. This review comprehensively analyzes recent advances (2010-2024) in natural zeolite modification for enhanced ammonia nitrogen removal. We systematically evaluate thermal, chemical, and combined modification methods, demonstrating that sodium-based treatments consistently achieve >90% removal efficiency through optimized ion exchange capacity. The work details structure-property relationships in zeolites, with clinoptilolite showing particular promise due to its unique pore geometry. We present new comparative data showing NaCl-La (OH)₃ modified zeolites achieve 92.6% removal at optimal conditions (pH 6.0, 12.5 g/L dosage). The review further examines competing ion effects, revealing K⁺ reduces adsorption capacity by 30% compared to Mg²⁺. Emerging techniques like ultrasonic-assisted modification show exceptional promise (>99% removal). Practical applications across municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastewater streams are critically reviewed, with cost-benefit analysis of regeneration methods. The work concludes with standardized testing protocols and identifies key research gaps in field-scale implementation of modified zeolites.
Natural Zeolite; Ammonia Nitrogen; Adsorption; Modification; Wastewater Treatment; Ion Exchange
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Hussaini Ibrahim, Dan Zheng, Lifang Hu, Wanling Min, Hui Peng and Jianquan Wang. Adsorption performance of modified natural zeolite for ammonia nitrogen: A Mini-review. International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2025, 16(02), 785-794. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/ijsra.2025.16.2.2323.
Copyright © 2025 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
