Arsenic Removal with
Alumina
Ian
Elliott: elliotti@onid.orst.edu
Wallace
Brown: brownwa@onid.orst.edu
Nick
Zachman: zachmann@onid.orst.edu
Motivation
Groundwater contamination
in
19% of wells in
Typical Arsenic
contamination is 300 ppb
Facts about
Arsenic
Arsenic is a poison and its
lethal dose for a human is 125 milligrams
It is 4 times as poisonous
as mercury
Almost all organs are
affected by arsenic
Side effects include:
cancer, melanosis, liver enlargement, and hearing
loss
In nature, there is plenty
of arsenic
Arsenic is present in air,
soil and water
Procedure
25 mL Arsenic solution with known alumina
mass
Shaken and analyzed at
various times
Centrifuge to separate and
recover Alumina
Results
Removes above 80% of
Arsenic in an hour
Removal rate plateaus after
an hour
One gram of Alumina will
treat 10 Liters of 300 ppb drinking water
Equipment
ICP (Inductively
Coupled Plasma) AES used to detect Arsenic
concentration
Experiment conducted in
centrifuge tube with 25 mL of
solution
Limitations
Experiments performed at
higher concentrations than are present in groundwater
Analytical equipment could
not accurately read Arsenic concentrations below 300 ppb
Future
Plans
Test Alumina pellets of
varying surface area
Develop a flow through
system
Test the Aluminas ability to remove As(III)
Test the possibility of
regenerating the used Alumina pellets.
Special Thanks
To
Dr. Mohammad Azizian
Dr. Alex Yokochi
Dr. David Hacklemann
The Hanso Foundation