Natural zeolite is a hydrated aluminosilicate substance that has excellent ion exchange and adsorption properties and is environmentally and economically friendly. This review describes the current application and modification of zeolite in wastewater treatment using acid and surfactants, zeolite composites (such as zeolite membranes), permeable reactive barriers and photocatalysts. The properties of zeolite as well as the regeneration and desorption of cast-off zeolite are briefly reviewed. Modifications are made to improve the capability of zeolite in wastewater treatment facilities. Furthermore, this review proposes the integration of zeolite and other available technologies to treat emerging pollutants in wastewater. Different types of zeolite (natural and synthetic zeolite of different origins) are compared, and their properties are evaluated. Different type of pollutants and treatment methods involving zeolite are also discussed. Zeolite is enhanced to solve the problem of various pollutants in wastewater.

This research aims to optimize preparation conditions of coconut-shell-based activated carbon (CSAC) and to evaluate its adsorption performance in removing POP of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). The CSAC was prepared by activating the coconut shell via single-stage microwave heating under carbon dioxide, CO2 flow. The total pore volume, BET surface area, and average pore diameter of CSAC were 0.420 cm3/g, 625.61 m2/g, and 4.55 nm, respectively. The surface of CSAC was negatively charged shown by the zeta potential study. Response surface methodology (RSM) revealed that the optimum preparation conditions in preparing CSAC were 502 W and 6 min for radiation power and radiation time, respectively, which corresponded to 84.83% of DDT removal and 37.91% of CSAC’s yield. Adsorption uptakes of DDT were found to increase with an increase in their initial concentration. Isotherm study revealed that DDT-CSAC adsorption system was best described by the Langmuir model with monolayer adsorption capacity, Qm of 14.51 mg/g. The kinetic study confirmed that the pseudo-second-order model fitted well with this adsorption system. In regeneration studies, the adsorption efficiency had slightly dropped from 100% to 83% after 5 cycles. CSAC was found to be economically feasible for commercialization owing to its low production cost and high adsorption capacity.