Application of chitosan in removal of molybdenum, arsenic and chromium from contaminated water and groundwater

GONZÁLEZ JUAN CARLOS; MARÍA FLORENCIA MANGIAMELI; GARCÍA SILVIA; BERTONI FERNANDO; BELLÚ SEBASTIÁN; MARIA INÉS FRASCAROLI; BÁRBARA PEREZ MORA

Bor

Conferencia; 26 International conference Ecological truth & Environmental Research; 2018

University of Belgrade

Water pollution by heavy metals represents a seriousproblem around the world. Among various treatment techniques for waterremediation, adsorption is an effective and versatile method due to the lowcost, effectiveness and simplicity. Chitosan is a cationic polysaccharide withan excellent adsorption capacity of heavy metal ions. Molybdenum is a traceelement that is present in plants and animals. Pollution by molybdenum speciesin water becomes a serious danger to general population.  Arsenic is an important environmental elementbecause of its high toxicity at the level of parts per billion. Chromium is avery toxic heavy metal, and it is discharged in the effluents from manyindustries. The goal of this study was the application of chitosan as a sorbentfor Mo(VI), As(V) and Cr(VI) removal. Chitosan has a high adsorption capacity(265 mg molybdate/ g chitosan; 110 mg arsenate/ g chitosan; 211 mg chromate/ gchitosan) at 20 ºC and pH 2.7- 4.5. SEM images showed that morphologicalsurface changes happen after metal adsorption. The results obtained demonstratethe ability of chitosan to remove these toxic ions from water and supportfurther implementation of the system to decontaminate water at higher scale.