Role of Surface Area and Surface Chemistry during an Investigation of Eucalyptus Wood Char for Fluoride Adsorption from Drinking Water

Abstract

AbstractThis work studied the use of eucalyptus wood char as a filtration material for fluoride adsorption from drinking water to increase access to safe water. Upon increasing charring temperature, the specific surface area of the eucalyptus wood char increased from 0.9 to 327 m2/g; however, the fluoride removal capacity of the unamended eucalyptus wood char was negligible for all charring temperatures. Amendment of the char media with aluminum oxides increased the fluoride removal capacity to 1.6 mg/g, demonstrating a significant improvement relative to the unamended wood char. While this adsorptive capacity is not yet as high as values reported for bone char, it is higher than the capacity of some other media currently in use and is a significant improvement over the unamended wood char. Thus, the aluminum oxide modified eucalyptus char may be a helpful alternative for fluoride removal in areas where bone char is not a viable option. This work also studied the possibility of altering the pHPZC, initi...