Arsenic sorption onto titanium dioxide, granular ferric hydroxide and activated alumina: Batch and dynamic studies

M. LESCANO; C. PASSALÍA; C.S. ZALAZAR; R.J. BRANDI

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND HEALTH PART A - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING & TOXIC AND HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE CONTROL

Taylor & Francis

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015 vol. 50 p. 424 - 431

1077-1204

The main objective of this work was to evaluate and compare the efficiency of three different adsorbent for arsenic (As) removal from water: titanium dioxide (TiO2), granular ferric hydroxide (GFH) and activated alumina (AA). Equilibrium experiments for dissolved arsenite and arsenate were carried out through batch tests. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models were adopted and their parameters were estimated by nonlinear regressions. In addition, dynamic experiments were performed in mini fixed bed columns and breakthrough curves were obtained for each combination of sorbate/adsorbent. Experimental results obtained by column assays were compared with predictions of well-known breakthrough models (Bohart-Adams and Clark). Results indicate that As(V) is more easily adsorbed than As(III) for AA and GFH while TiO2 has a similar behavior for both species. The titanium based material is the most efficient adsorbent to carry out the process, followed by the GFH.