Removal of arsenate from water by adsorbents: A comparative case study

Sunbaek Bang, Maria E. Pena, Manish Patel, Lee Lippincott, Xiaoguang Meng, Kyoung Woong Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Laboratory and field filtration experiments were conducted to study the effectiveness of As(V) removal for five types of adsorbent media. The media included activated alumina (AA), modified activated alumina (MAA), granular ferric hydroxide (GFH), granular ferric oxide (GFO), and granular titanium dioxide (TiO2). In laboratory batch and column experiments, the synthetic challenge water was used to evaluate the effectiveness for five adsorbents. The results of the batch experiments showed that the As(V) adsorption decreased as follows at pH 6.5: TiO2 gt; GFO gt; GFH gt; MAA gt; AA. At pH 8.5, however, As(V) removal decreased in the following order: GFO = TiO2 gt; GFH gt; MAA gt; AA. In column experiments, at pH 6.5, the adsorbed As(V) for adsorbents followed the order: TiO2 gt; GFO gt; GFH, whereas at pH 8.5 the order became: GFO = TiO2 > GFH when the challenge water containing 50 μg/L of As(V) was used. Field filtration experiments were carried out in parallel at a wellhead in New Jersey. Before the effluent arsenic concentration increased to 10 μg/L, approximately 58,000 and 41,500 bed volumes of groundwater containing an average of 47 μg/L of As(V) were treated by the filter system packed with GFO and TiO2, respectively. The As(V) adsorption decreased in the following sequence: GFO gt; TiO2 gt; GFH gt; MAA gt; AA. Filtration results demonstrated that GFO and TiO2 adsorbents could be used as media in small community filtration systems for As(V) removal.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)133-141
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental Geochemistry and Health
Volume33
Issue numberSUPPL. 1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Keywords

  • Adsorbent
  • Adsorption
  • Arsenate
  • Filtration

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