الفهرس 
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Abstract
The groundwater is considered a second source of fresh water in Assiut Governorate after Nile water. The Quaternary aquifer is the main water bearing formation. It is composed of sand and gravels deposits occasionally, with clays lenses. The groundwater is often exposed to contamination hazards as a result of either human activities or passing through the rocks pores that form the aquifer. Thus water is vulnerable to pollution causing changes of its physical and chemical properties. Both iron and manganese ions are present in the bottom of the earth in their bivalent state, which are soluble and colorless, as the water flows to the surface, those ions become trivalent due to atmospheric oxygenation forming solid oxides causing undesirable colors. For the present study, the averages of about 6000 samples were collected from 230 sites during the period from 2010 to 2016. In examining these samples, 152 sites (representing about 70% of the total studied sites) were selected due to their high concentration of iron and manganese (0.3 mg/l and 0.4 mg/l, respectively) than the permissible limits (according to the Egyptian Standard Law No. 458/2007). It was noted that the concentration of both elements does not increase more than 2 mg / l in all studied locations. The contaminated sites with iron, manganese and hardness ions were divided into three groups together with the salts of total hardness and calcium deficiency. Normally, the conventional treatment plants rely on the oxidation of iron and manganese, where both elements transform from the soluble to the solid state. Some of this water might lead to the distribution networks without completing this oxidation process leading to undesirable color, taste and iron bacteria growth besides the fact that, this type of stations is not capable of getting rid of the water hardness salts, which may lead to the formation of deposits inside the distribution networks, which affects its efficiency. These processing plants require high energy when operating. The main objective of this study is: 1) Preparation and characterization of synthetic zeolite 4A from the kaolinite ore of Abu Zenima area, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. 2) Testing the ability of zeolite to adsorb iron and manganese ions besides water hardness from the groundwater. 3) Performing simulation study by choosing three sites with different concentration of iron, manganese ions and water hardness from the study areas: a) Refa Village groundwater which contains the highest concentration of the undesirable ions b) Kalaf Rashed Village groundwater containing a moderate concentration of these ions c) Nagaa Bani Hussein Village groundwater, where the concentration of those ions is the least. Those sites were selected to make laboratory simulation study for groundwater flow on columns containing synthetic zeolite to design lab models illustrating treatment methods with the most favorable conditions obtained from those experiments. The results showed the movement behavior of those polluted ions in the groundwater to the filtered zeolite layer using the mathematical models of Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models. 4) To design a model for the removal of iron and manganese ions besides water hardness from the groundwater. Our study has proved the efficiency of the synthetic zeolite-4A in seizing iron, manganese and water hardness with efficiencies 99.8%, 99.9%, and 98% respectively. The thesis is focused on three parts: • The first part includes the introduction and literature review of the work. • The second part comprises our experimental study dealing with: - monitoring of the groundwater analysis results for the period from 2010 to 2016 to isolate the contaminated sites. - synthesis of zeolite-4A from Abu Zenima kaolinite, giving its characterization by XRD, SEM, and FTIR techniques, and testing as well its ability to adsorb iron, manganese ions as well as eliminating water hardness salts from groundwater. • The third part focuses on the discussion of the obtained results and manipulating these results to design a laboratory model for removing iron, manganese ions, and water hardness from groundwater. The thesis contains six chapters: • The first chapter gives an introduction describing the importance of groundwater, sources of iron, manganese and hardness salts, and the problems they cause to groundwater, and in addition to the objectives of the thesis and the location of study area. • The second chapter introduced the topography, the previous geological and hydrogeological studies carried out on the study area, the main sites of kaolinite ore in Egypt as a natural and economical source of synthetic zeolite. The same chapter gives information on zeolite including a) its definition, common types, structure, properties, b) synthesis of zeolite-4A from kaolinite, and finally c) its applications for groundwater remediation. • The third chapter is concerned with the experiments conducted on the analysis of groundwater, methods of calculation, estimation of the undesirable elements