Adsorption of Arsenic from Mine-Wastewater Using Iron Impregnated Activated Carbon: Effect of Operating Parameters and Kinetic Modelling
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Activated carbon presents a promising alternative in arsenic treatment as it is low-cost and does not produce hazardous by-product. It has been proven to be effective in removing arsenic in wastewater, however, most of the studies were conducted using synthetic wastewater that does not necessarily represent the actual condition of a mine wastewater. The main objective of this study is to remove arsenic from mine-wastewater using iron-oxide impregnated activated carbon. Results showed that the iron was successfully impregnated to activated carbon through surface adsorption and pore filling based on SEM-EDX analysis. The modification enhances the affinity of the activated carbon to arsenic achieving maximum 99% arsenic removal. The adsorption of arsenic was not significantly affected by the initial pH due to convergence to near neutral final pH regardless of initial pH. And higher adsorbent dosage significantly increased the removal with maximum at 10 g/L adsorbent dosage. The adsorption data is well fitted on pseudo-second order suggesting that the rate-limiting step may involve chemisorption and intraparticle diffusion contributes to the adsorption process. And the presence of other metals affected the rate of adsorption of arsenic.
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