Investigations on activated alumina based domestic defluoridation units

Relative extents, mechanisms, and kinetics of fluoride removal from synthetic groundwater by prevalent sorbents

Fluoride (F) contamination in groundwater affects millions of people across the world. Although several sorbents have been identified for low-cost F removal, the choice of the optimal sorbent is dictated by the specific chemistry of contaminated groundwater. In this contribution, eight prevalent sorbents-activated alumina (AA), calcite, hydroxyapatite-coated calcite (HCC), natural chitosan, chalk, Mg-Al-CO3 layered double hydroxide (LDH), calcined Mg-Al-CO3 LDH (cLDH), and hydrous ferric oxide (HFO)-were categorized on their relative F removal mechanisms, extents, and kinetics from a typical synthetic groundwater, representative of contaminated aquifers of North India. Initially, batch experiments containing sorbents at 4 g·L-1 were conducted at a high F concentration (2.9 mM). The dominant F removal processes were identified by aqueous- and solid-phase characterization of reaction by-products. While chalk and calcite removed F by secondary precipitation of fluorite, HCC removed F by fluorapatite precipitation, and other sorbents removed F by sorption. Depending on the immobilization mechanism identified, the F uptake kinetics on each sorbent was modeled with either pseudo-second order or generalized rate equations. Among sorptive F uptake, cLDH exhibited the highest (10-2.15 mg·g-1·h-1) and HFO showed the lowest (10-4.15 mg·g-1·h-1) rates. Fluoride removal by precipitation was the fastest with chalk at 10-1.3 (h-1) (0.16). Subsequent experiments with AA and HCC at lower initial F concentration (0.42 mM) suggested increased uptake by ∼30x and ∼7x, respectively, relative to uptake in 2.9 mM initial F systems. For AA, apart from the widely-accepted mechanism of adsorption, an unidentified F-containing surface precipitate was formed. HCC was identified as the most promising sorbent with no sludge generation.

Efficient removal of fluoride on aluminum modified activated carbon: an adsorption behavioral study and application to remediation of ground water

In recent times, ground water contamination by toxic elements is of great concern and it is to be addressed for consumption of human, animal, and plant growth. In this context, we have synthesized an adsorbent by modifying commercially available activated carbon with aluminum and tested for de-fluoridation studies. The activity results suggested that the optimized adsorbent is highly efficient in removing the fluoride from ground water. Adsorption maxima are obtained over a wide pH range from 4 to 9, with a contact time of 15 minutes at a dosage of 4 g/L. The results also revealed that the synthesized adsorbent is suitable for application in ground water without any pH adjustment and has exhibited 85%-95% tolerance for common anions in the range of 100-500 mg/L. Equilibrium adsorption isotherm models as well as kinetics of adsorption were applied for the system. An adsorption capacity of 20.4 mg/g and fast kinetics observed are most favorable for defluoridation. Reuse of adsorbent over repeated cycles was investigated. Residual amount of aluminum in treated water is found to be negligible. The removal of toxic elements like Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn, As, and Se under the optimized experimental conditions has also been investigated. Al-AC found to be a highly promising material for removal of fluoride and toxic metals from drinking water.

Repeated Heat Regeneration of Bone Char for Sustainable Use in Fluoride Removal from Drinking Water

The effectiveness of regenerated chicken bone char (CBC) in fluoride removal was investigated in the present study. Heat treatment was studied as the regeneration method. Results revealed that the CBC regenerated at 673 K yielded the highest fluoride adsorption capacity, hence, 673 K was the best regenerating temperature. The study continued up to five regeneration cycles at the best regenerating temperature; 673 K. The CBC accounted to 16.1 mg F/g CBC as the total adsorption capacity after five regeneration cycles. The recovery percentage of CBC reduced from 79% at the first regeneration to 4% after five regeneration cycles. The hydroxyapatite structure of CBC was not changed during the fluoride adsorption by five regeneration cycles. The ion exchange incorporated with the chemical precipitation occurred during the fluoride adsorption. The repeated regeneration of CBC is possible and it could be used as a low cost defluoridation technique to minimize the wastage of bone char.

Groundwater fluoride contamination, probable release, and containment mechanisms: a review on Indian context

Fluoride contamination in the groundwater has got great attention in last few decades due to their toxicity, persistent capacity and accumulation in human bodies. There are several sources of fluoride in the environment and different pathways to enter in the drinking water resources, which is responsible for potential effect on human health. Presence of high concentration of fluoride ion in groundwater is a major issue and it makes the water unsuitable for drinking purpose. Availability of fluoride in groundwater indicates various geochemical processes and subsurface contamination of a particular area. Fluoride-bearing aquifers, geological factors, rate of weathering, ion-exchange reaction, residence time and leaching of subsurface contaminants are major responsible factors for availability of fluoride in groundwater. In India, several studies have reported that the groundwater of several states are contaminated with high fluoride. The undesirable level of fluoride in groundwater is one of the most natural groundwater quality problem, which affects large portion of arid and semiarid regions of India. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and West Bengal are the relatively high-fluoride-contaminated states in India. Chronic ingestion of high doses of fluoride-rich water leads to fluorosis on human and animal. Over 66 million Indian populations are at risk due to excess fluoride-contaminated water. Therefore, groundwater contamination subject to undesirable level of fluoride needs urgent attention to understand the role of geochemistry, hydrogeology and climatic factors along with anthropogenic inputs in fluoride pollution.

Advances in coagulation technique for treatment of fluoride-contaminated water: a critical review

Fluoride contamination of groundwater has become a major concern worldwide, resulting in serious medical conditions such as dental and skeletal fluorosis. Consequently, the WHO recommends that drinking water should not contain more than 1.5 mg/l of fluoride. Various defluoridation techniques such as coagulation, reverse osmosis, activated alumina adsorption, and biosorbent adsorption have been developed. Adsorption through the activated alumina and biosorbent process is not cost effective and has regeneration problems, and the reverse osmosis process has the high initial cost which makes it unacceptable for developing countries. Coagulation is a commonly employed field technology for defluoridation, which involves the addition of aluminum salts, lime, and bleaching powder followed by rapid mixing, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration but suffers from a limitation of high residual aluminum in treated water. This paper critically reviews the recent developments in the coagulation technique for defluoridation along with its comparison to other defluoridation techniques. The review describes the pertinent gaps in the process and throws open suggestions for extending research by citing the recent studies which may lead to the revival of the process. The description about the suspension of alumino-fluoro complexes that constitute a substantial part of the residual aluminum after alum treatment has been narrated in the paper that helps in a deeper understanding of the defluoridation mechanism. To make the process highly suitable for communities, appropriate technological interventions, such as converting it to a continuous mode of operation, replacing alum with poly-aluminum chloride (PAC), and attaching a micro-filtration unit in series of the existing process, can be done. Also, using PAC as a coagulant with sand filtration has to be considered for making the process more efficient.

Arsenic and fluoride contaminated groundwaters: A review of current technologies for contaminants removal

Chronic contamination of groundwaters by both arsenic (As) and fluoride (F) is frequently observed around the world, which has severely affected millions of people. Fluoride and As are introduced into groundwaters by several sources such as water-rock interactions, anthropogenic activities, and groundwater recharge. Coexistence of these pollutants can have adverse effects due to synergistic and/or antagonistic mechanisms leading to uncertain and complicated health effects, including cancer. Many developing countries are beset with the problem of F and As laden waters, with no affordable technologies to provide clean water supply. The technologies available for the simultaneous removal are akin to chemical treatment, adsorption and membrane processes. However, the presence of competing ions such as phosphate, silicate, nitrate, chloride, carbonate, and sulfate affect the removal efficiency. Highly efficient, low-cost and sustainable technology which could be used by rural populations is of utmost importance for simultaneous removal of both pollutants. This can be realized by using readily available low cost materials coupled with proper disposal units. Synthesis of inexpensive and highly selective nanoadsorbents or nanofunctionalized membranes is required along with encapsulation units to isolate the toxicant loaded materials to avoid their re-entry in aquifers. A vast number of reviews have been published periodically on removal of As or F alone. However, there is a dearth of literature on the simultaneous removal of both. This review critically analyzes this important issue and considers strategies for their removal and safe disposal.

Development of a Household Water Defluoridation Process Using Aluminium Hydroxide Based Adsorbent

In this study, the removal of fluoride from water using aluminium hydroxide based adsorbent has been investigated in continuous operation. The effect of fluoride influent concentration, feed flowrate, and adsorbent bed height onto the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were examined. The fixed-bed adsorption system was found to perform better with lower influent fluoride concentration, lower flowrate, and higher bed depth. Thermodynamic evaluation using the bed depth service time model indicated that the fluoride adsorption capacity was 25.8 mg F-/g of adsorbent, which is high compared to commercially available activated alumina (1.8 to 1.9 mg/g). Kinetic studies showed that the rate of adsorption in continuous studies was in the range of 6.12×10(-3) to 39.3×10(-3) L/mg.h under different operating conditions. The household defluoridation unit (HDU) was tested at an up-flow mode and it was determined that the HDU packed with 0.9 kg of adsorbent with 28.3 cm of bed depth resulted in a specific safe water yield of 823.79 L. Regeneration of the exhaust media using 1% NaOH and 0.1 M HCl showed that the adsorbent could be reused. The estimated running cost of the unit was 2.0 U.S. dollar/m3 of treated water, with the potential to minimize further. Hence, it was concluded that the proposed method is simple and exhibits superior performance for the treatment of fluoride-contaminated water with the potential for household application.

Removal of fluoride from polluted waters using active carbon derived from barks of Vitex negundo plant

Background

Deleterious effects of fluoride contamination in ground waters on the health of human beings are well known and intensive research on developing de-fluoridation methods is globally pursued. Of the various methodologies, increasing interest is being envisaged in using the adsorption methods based on active carbons derived from plant material. In the present investigation, Nitric acid activated carbon derived from barks of Vitex negundo plant (NVNC) is probed for its de-fluoridation abilities.

Methods

The activated carbon is characterized adopting various physicochemical methods and surface morphological studies are carried out using FT-IR and SEM-EDX techniques. The effect of various parameters such as pH, sorbent dosage, agitation time, initial concentration of fluoride, temperature, particle size and presence of foreign ions on the extraction of the fluoride is studied adopting Batch methods.The adsorption process is analyzed with Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms and kinetics of adsorption is studied using pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order, Weber and Morris intraparticle diffusion, Bangham’s pore diffusion and Elovich equations. The methodology developed is applied to real ground water samples.

Results

De-fluoridation is maximum at the pH: 7.0, adsorbent dosage: 4.0g/lit; equilibrium time: 50 min, Particle size: 45μ and temperature: 30 ± 1°C. The correlation coefficient values for the adsorption isotherms: Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich are 0.929, 0.998, 0.980 and 0.946 respectively and for kinetic models: pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Weber and Morris intraparticle diffusion, Bangham’s pore diffusion and Elovich equations are 0.989, 0.994, 0.874, 0.902 and 0.912 respectively. The Temkin heat of sorption, B, and the Dubinin-Radushkevich mean free energy, E, for the activated carbon adsorbent are 0.196 J/mol and 7.07 kJ/mol respectively.

Conclusions

Nitric acid activated carbon derived from barks of Vitex negundo (NVNC) plant is found to be an effective adsorbent for the de-fluoridation of waters. The adsorption process is satisfactorily fitted with Langmuir adsorption isotherm with good correlation coefficient value and it indicates monolayer adsorption. The adsorption kinetics is found to follow pseudo-second-order kinetics. The Dubinin-Radushkevich mean free energy and Temkin heat of sorption confirm the physisorption nature as these are lower than 20kJ/mol. The procedure developed is remarkably successful in de-fluoridation of real ground water samples.

Facile synthesis of smart biopolymeric nanofibers towards toxic ion removal and disinfection control

To provide safe drinking water, it is crucial to tackle both bacterial infection and inorganic pollutants.

Fluoride adsorption studies on mixed-phase nano iron oxides prepared by surfactant mediation-precipitation technique

Mixed nano iron oxides powder containing goethite (α-FeOOH), hematite (α-Fe(2)O(3)) and ferrihydrite (Fe(5)HO(8)·4H(2)O) was synthesized through surfactant mediation-precipitation route using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The X-ray diffraction, FTIR, TEM, Mössbauer spectroscopy were employed to characterize the sample. These studies confirmed the nano powder contained 77% goethite, 9% hematite and 14% ferrihydrite. Fluoride adsorption onto the synthesized sample was investigated using batch adsorption method. The experimental parameters chosen for adsorption studies were: pH (3.0-10.0), temperature (35-55°C), concentrations of adsorbent (0.5-3.0 g/L), adsorbate (10-100 mg/L) and some anions. Adsorption of fluoride onto mixed iron oxide was initially very fast followed by a slow adsorption phase. By varying the initial pH in the range of 3.0-10.0, maximum adsorption was observed at a pH of 5.75. Presence of either SO(4)(2-) or Cl(-) adversely affected the adsorption of fluoride in the order of SO(4)(2-)>Cl(-). The FTIR studies of fluoride loaded adsorbent showed that partly the adsorption on the surface took place at surface hydroxyl sites. Mössbauer studies indicated that the overall absorption had gone down after fluoride adsorption that implies it has reduced the crystalline bond strength. The relative absorption area of ferrihydrite was marginally increased from 14 to 17%.

Removal of fluoride from drinking water using aluminum hydroxide coated rice husk ash

Fluoride content in groundwater that is greater than the WHO limit of 1.5mg/L, causes dental and skeletal fluorosis. In India, several states are affected with excess fluoride in groundwater. The problem is aggravated due to the lack of appropriate and user friendly defluoridation technology. Several fluoride removal techniques are reported in the literature amongst which the Nalgonda technique and use of activated alumina have been studied extensively. However a simple, efficient and cost effective technology is not available for widespread use in many affected regions. In this paper, we present a novel cost effective defluoridation method that is based on surface modification of rice husk ash (RHA) by coating aluminum hydroxide. RHA is obtained by burning rice/paddy husk which is an abundantly available and is an inexpensive raw material. The results showed excellent fluoride removal efficiency and the adsorption capacity was found to be between 9 and 10mg/g.

Fluoride adsorption onto granular ferric hydroxide: effects of ionic strength, pH, surface loading, and major co-existing anions

Fluoride adsorption onto granular ferric hydroxide (GFH) was investigated using batch methods, under various ionic strength, pH, surface loading, and major co-existing anion conditions. Adsorption of fluoride on GFH included an initial fast adsorption phase followed by a slow adsorption phase. Within the pH range of 2-11, fluoride adsorption equilibrium was not affected by ionic strength, but was significantly affected by pH. Maximum adsorption was achieved in the pH range of 3-6.5. Under the same pH condition, fluoride adsorption followed the Freundlich isotherm, indicating that the GFH surface was heterogeneous. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and attenuated total reflection-infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy data showed evidence for fluoride sorption on the GFH surface via inner-sphere complexation accompanying increased hydrogen bonding and surface hydroxylation. Major anions, including phosphate, bicarbonate, sulfate, and chloride, reduced fluoride adsorption in the following order: H(2)PO(4)(-)>HCO(3)(-)>SO(4)(2-)>Cl(-).

Combined electrocoagulation and electroflotation for removal of fluoride from drinking water

A combined electrocoagulation (EC) and electroflotation (EF) process was proposed to remove fluoride from drinking water. Its efficacy was investigated under different conditions. Experimental results showed that the combined process could remove fluoride effectively. The total hydraulic retention time required was only 30 min. After treatment, the fluoride concentration was reduced from initial 4.0-6.0mg/L to lower than 1.0mg/L. The influent pH value was found to be a very important variable that affected fluoride removal significantly. The optimal influent pH range is 6.0-7.0 at which not only can effective defluoridation be achieved, but also no pH readjustment is needed after treatment. In addition, it was found that SO(4)(2-) had negative effect; Ca(2+) had positive effect; while Cl(-) had little effect on the fluoride removal. The EC charge loading, EF charge loading and energy consumption were 3.0 Faradays/m(3), 1.5 Faradays/m(3), and 1.2 kWh/m(3), respectively, under typical conditions where fluoride was reduced from initial 4.0 to 0.87 mg/L.

Hydrated cement: a promising adsorbent for the removal of fluoride from aqueous solution

The present study was carried out to investigate the potential of cement hydrated at various time intervals for the removal of excess F- from aqueous solution by using batch adsorption studies. The influence of different adsorption parameters, viz. effect of adsorbent dose, initial concentration, pH, interfering ions and contact time were studied for their optimization. It was observed that the adsorbent exhibited reasonably significant F- removal over a wide range of pH. The presence of carbonate and bicarbonate ions in aqueous solution were found to affect the F- removal indicating that these anions compete with the sorption of F- on adsorbent. The equilibrium adsorption data were fitted well for both the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms and the adsorption capacities were calculated. Comparative studies for F- removal in simulated and field water show relatively higher F- removal in simulated water. XRD and SEM patterns of the hydrated cement were recorded to get better insight into the mechanism of adsorption process. From the experimental results, it may be concluded that HC was an efficient and economical adsorbent for F- removal.