A laboratory study for the treatment of arsenic, iron, and manganese bearing ground water using Fe3+ impregnated activated carbon:: Effects of shaking time, pH and temperature

This paper deals with the experimental investigation related to removal of arsenic from a simulated contaminated ground water by the adsorption onto Fe3+ impregnated granular activated carbon (GAC-Fe) in presence of Fe2+, Fe2+, and Mn2+. Similar study has also been done with granular activated carbon (GAC) for comparison. The effects of shaking time, pH, and temperature on the percentage removal of As(T), As(III), As(V), Fe2+, Fe2+, and Mn have been discussed. The shaking time for optimum removal of arsenic species has been noted as 8 h for GAC-Fe and 12 h for GAC, respectively. As(T) removal was less affected by the change in pH within the pH range of 2-11. Maximum removal of As(V) and As(Ill) was observed in the pH range of 5-7 and 9-11, respectively, for both the adsorbents. Under the experimental conditions at 30 degrees C, the optimum removal of As(T), As(III), As(V), Fe, and Mn are 95.5%, 93%, 98%, 100%, and 41%, respectively, when GAC-Fe is used. For GAC these values are 56%, 41%, 71%, 99%, and 98%. The adsorbent dose (AD) and its particle size (PS) for both GAC and GAC-Fe were 30 g/1 and 125-150 mu m, respectively. The initial arsenic concentration in the synthetic water sample was 200 ppb. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.