Modeling of the adsorptive removal of arsenic(III) using plant biomass: a bioremedial approach

Palas Roy,Naba Kumar Mondal,Soumya Chattoraj,Uttiya Dey,Debasis Mukhopadhyay

doi:10.1007/s13201-015-0339-2

Abstract

In the present work, the possibility of using a non-conventional finely ground (250 μm) Azadirachta indica (neem) bark powder [AiBP] has been tested as a low-cost biosorbent for the removal of arsenic(III) from water. The removal of As(III) was studied by performing a series of biosorption experiments (batch and column). The biosorption behavior of As(III) for batch and column operations were examined in the concentration ranges of 50–500 µg L−1 and 500.0–2000.0 µg L−1, respectively. Under optimized batch conditions, the AiBP could remove up to 89.96 % of As(III) in water system. The artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed from batch experimental data sets which provided reasonable predictive performance (R2 = 0.961; 0.954) of As(III) biosorption. In batch operation, the initial As(III) concentration had the most significant impact on the biosorption process. For column operation, central composite design (CCD) was applied to investigate the influence on the breakthrough time for optimization of As(III) biosorption process and evaluation of interacting effects of different operating variables. The optimized result of CCD revealed that the AiBP was an effective and economically feasible biosorbent with maximum breakthrough time of 653.9 min, when the independent variables were retained at 2.0 g AiBP dose, 2000.0 µg L−1 initial As(III) concentrations, and 3.0 mL min−1 flow rate, at maximum desirability value of 0.969.

Highlights

Arsenic contamination in aqueous environment has become a global concern because of its serious environmental and health hazards (Mamun et al 2009; Ranjan et al 2009) inAppl Water Sci (2017) 7:1307–1321 several developing regions
The removal percentage of As(III) on A. indica bark powder (AiBP) biosorbent was initially increased with the increasing initial concentration of arsenic reaching the optimum level of 46.99 % at 100 lg L-1 arsenic concentration
AiBP was found to be efficacious in the removal of arsenic(III) from water

Summary

Introduction

Arsenic contamination in aqueous environment has become a global concern because of its serious environmental and health hazards (Mamun et al 2009; Ranjan et al 2009) inAppl Water Sci (2017) 7:1307–1321 several developing regions. The existence of arsenic in groundwater, and eventually in drinking water can be dangerous because of the large quantity of water consumed by the human beings in long term (Mohan and Pittman 2007; Mamun et al 2009). High level of arsenic in drinking water sourced from groundwater has been reported in 21 countries (Mohan and Pittman 2007; Roy et al 2014), especially Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Mongolia, Thailand, and Taiwan, where a large proportion of groundwater is contaminated with arsenic at levels from 100 to over 2000 lg L-1 (Guo and Chen 2005). As(III) is more mobile in groundwater and 25–60 times more toxic than As(V) (Ratna Kumar et al 2004)

Methods

Results

Conclusion