ARSENIC REMOVAL FROM WATER

Presented by

Hariom Gangwar
Vaibhav Mishra
Kamesh Kumar
Rishi Narayan Yadav
Shubham Dixit
 Introduction
Arsenic occurs naturally in rocks and soil, water, air, and
plants and animals. It can be further released into the
environment through natural activities such as volcanic
action, erosion of rocks and forest fires, or through human
actions. Approximately 90 percent of industrial arsenic in
the U.S. is currently used as a wood preservative, but
arsenic is also used in paints, dyes, metals, drugs, soaps
and semi-conductors. High arsenic levels can also come
from certain fertilizers. Industry practices such as copper
smelting, mining and coal burning also contribute to
arsenic in our environment.
Higher levels of arsenic tend to be found more in ground
water sources than in surface water sources (i.e., lakes and
rivers) of drinking water.
 Effects Of Arsenic Exposure
Exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause various health
effects, such as irritation of the stomach and intestines,
decreased production of red and white blood cells, skin
changes and lung irritation.
It is suggested that significant amounts of inorganic
arsenic can intensify the chances of cancer development,
like lung cancer, liver cancer and lymphatic cancer.
Finally, inorganic arsenic can damage DNA.
A lethal dose of arsenic oxide is generally regarded as
100 mg.
Organic arsenic can cause neither cancer, nor DNA
damage. But exposure to high doses may cause certain
effects to human health.
 Arsenic Removal Techniques
Methods for reducing arsenic concentrations include:
Lime precipitation
Oxidation
Coagulation/filtration
Adsorptive media
Ion exchange
Reverse osmosis

Lime precipitation: It has been used to reduce arsenic

concentrations from high levels (e.g., hundreds of mg/L)
to moderate levels (e.g., 1 to 5 mg/L). Precipitation is
typically followed by clarification or filtration for solids
removal.
 Oxidation: It is a chemical process typically used in
conjunction with other processes for arsenic
removal. As3+ is more soluble in water and less available
for precipitation reactions than its
As5+relative. Accordingly, an oxidant such as Cl2, H2O2,
KMnO4, or O3 can be added to oxidize As3+ to As5+.

Reverse Osmosis Systems :

The most cost-effective method for removing arsenic
from a private water supply appears to be reverse
osmosis, commonly called RO.
It works by forcing water through a special, selective
membrane.
The membrane has microscopic pores that are specially
sized to allow water molecules through, while trapping
larger molecules like lead, iron, chromium and arsenic.
Anionic Exchange Systems :
Anionic exchange systems use a physical/chemical
process to exchange ions between a resin bed and water
passing through.
These systems soften water, remove iron and manganese,
and lower nitrate and arsenic levels. These systems work
by passing water through the resin bed, which is charged
with chloride ions from dissolved salt.
Arsenic molecules in the water replace these chloride
ions by knocking them off and taking their place. This
process continues until all of the sites on the resin are
full.
The resin is then backwashed with water that is super-
saturated with dissolved salt. The chlorine ions in this
backwash water strip the embedded arsenic molecules
out of the resin and into the backwash waste water.
 Adsorption :
Among all the arsenic removal technologies available till
date, Adsorption has find its use in variety of
applications and mainly in the extraction of harmful
metal, materials etc. This process uses mainly the
adsorbent like Iron Oxide nanoparticle filter systems
which is a main reagent used in our project.
Iron Oxide Filter Systems :
Iron oxide filters are a relatively new and promising
method for lowering arsenic levels in private drinking
water systems. Like activated carbon, these granular
filters have large amounts of surface area and an affinity
for arsenic to adhere to its surface.
Although these filters are fairly new to the home
treatment market, the principals behind them have been
used by public water suppliers for many years.
 Iron oxide media can be housed in small inline filter
cartridges (point-of-use) or in larger tanks like the ones
used for ion exchange systems (point-of-entry).
These filters can be used to enhance the performance of
reverse osmosis systems that are not effectively
removing As (III). The media can be disposed of as non-
hazardous waste.
 Removal of arsenic (III) and arsenic (V) from
drinking water
using iron oxide-coated sand and limestone

Preparation of iron oxide-coated sand :

Washed and dried river sand (200 g) size 0.10.8 mm was
mixed with 2 M ferric chloride solution at pH 10.5 for 2 min.
The mixture was then dried in an oven at 110 for 20h. The
coated sand was washed thoroughly with distilled water until
clear water was visible.Finally, the mixture was dried at 105 .
Batch experiments :
Batch experiments were designed to investigate the
efficiency of arsenic removal with different dosages of
coated sand and limestone and the effect of initial
concentrations of arsenic at fixed dosage of coated sand
and limestone. Flasks (250 ml) containing a fixed
dosage of coated sand and limestone with 100 ml of
arsenic(III) and arsenic (v) solution were placed on a
mechanical shaker at room temperature for a fixed time
period 2hr. The flask was then removed and the solution
was filtered through whatman no 21 filter paper. The
effect of limestone addition on the removal efficiency of
arsenic was observed by varying the dose of limestone
in each batch of coated sand. The optimised dose of
limestone and coated sand was evaluated and used to
observe the removal efficiency with varying
concentrations of arsenic spiked water.
 Packed Bed Reactor :
A packed bed is a hollow tube, pipe, or other vessel that
is filled with a packing material. The packing can be
randomly filled with small objects like rasching rings or
else it can be a specifically designed structured packing.
Packed beds may also contain catalyst particles or
adsorbents such as zeolite pellets, granular activated
carbon, etc.
The purpose of a packed bed is typically to improve
contact between two phases in a chemical or similar
Process.
Packed Bed Behaviour :

The behaviour of a Packed Bed is affected by the following

parameters :
Column structure: Random and stacked packed column
Pressure drop through bed
Packing size
Fluid velocity
 Experimental- setup
The column height was 120 cm and 7 cm in diameter having a
water outlet.
Column was packed with uncoated sand which acts as a filter media
to trap the precipitated particles, coated sand and limestone with
specific particle size and bed volume.
Water at different flow rates was allowed to pass through the
column.
 Conclusion
Iron oxide-coated sand can be used to remove both
arsenic (III) and arsenic(V) effectively.
Limestone helps more effectively in removal of arsenic.
Arsenic (III) removal efficiency increased with increasing
dose of coated sand. 97.5 % arsenic removal was
obtained at a coated sand dosage of 5 g/100 ml with or
without limestone.
A filtration system containing iron-coated sand and
limestone can be used in small-scale or household
purposes for effective removal of arsenic from
contaminated water.
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