Low-cost technologies based on heterogeneous photocatalysis and zerovalent iron for arsenic removal in the Chacopampean plain, Argentina.

MARÍA E. MORGADA DE BOGGIO; IVANA K. LEVY; MIGUEL MATEU; P. BHATTACHARYA; J. BUNDSCHUH; MARTA I. LITTER.

Shah Jalal University of Science & Technology (SUST), Sylhet, Bangladesh

Conferencia; International Conference on Water and Wastewater Treatment; 2007

Groundwater of the Chacopampean Plain of Argentina contains levels of arsenic exceeding the standard requirements for drinking water. The situation is more serious in rural areas, where bad water quality, poverty and malnutrition conditions cause high incidence of CERHA (chronic endemic regional hydroarsenicism). In this work, results of heterogeneous photocatalysis and zerovalent iron to remove As from groundwater are presented as low-cost technologies to remove As. For HP tests, PET bottles internally covered by a TiO 2 layer and exposed to solar or artificial UV light were used. Arsenic-containing solutions (pure Milli-Q water), irradiated under artificial light for 6 h, followed by the addition of iron packing wire, yielded more than 80% As removal. Real well waters of the Santiago del Estero Province , under more than 4 h sunlight irradiation and further addition of a ferric salt, yielded more than 94% As removal, with As concentrations well below the national standards. For ZVI tests, water samples were introduced in plastic bottles. Iron wool demonstrated to be a better iron source than packing wire for As removal. Solar irradiation, in synthetic as well as in natural samples seems to definitively improve As removal, avoiding the use of high amounts of iron.