Removal of arsenic from wastewater by using different technologies and adsorbents: a review

Abstract

A lot of anthropogenic activities can discharge arsenic into the ecosystem such as industrial wastes, incineration of municipal, pesticide production and wood preserving. In addition, most arsenic soluble species can enter surface waters via runoff and leach into the groundwater. Around forty million people from all over the world are affected by arsenic through drinking water above the maximum contaminant level of 0.01 mg/L. The affected by inorganic arsenic through drinking water can cause a lot of diseases especially a unique peripheral vascular disease and blackfoot disease. These diseases usually cause gangrene and end with amputation of the legs and can also cause severe systemic atherosclerosis. In addition, the wastewater treatment techniques can be divided into two groups, adsorbents and membrane separations such as electrodialysis, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Furthermore, most of these techniques do not function at a low level of concentration, so that moderate to high levels of concentration are required. However, the use of some of these arsenic removal approaches is costly because they require a lot of energy and reagents. Moreover, this review discusses readily adsorption technologies that have been applied to remove arsenic from wastewater along with an analysis of arsenic chemistry and contamination. This review is also focused on the removal of arsenic from wastewater using different adsorbents such as iron, aluminium, natural and biological adsorbents. Its goal is to increase our fundamental understanding of this developing research subject and to identify future research and development strategies for sustainable and cost-effective arsenic adsorption technology.