Title: Fluoride removal from drinking water by adsorption using bone char as a biosorbent

Authors: Wei Ma, Feiqun Ya, Ren Wang, Yaqian Zhao

Addresses: Department of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, PR China; School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, Centre for Water Resources Research, University College Dublin, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland. ' Department of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, PR China. ' Department of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, PR China. ' School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, Centre for Water Resources Research, University College Dublin, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland

Abstract: As a biomass material, bone char was investigated for the feasibility to be used as a cost-effective biosorbent for fluoride removal from drinking water in groundwater environment. Based on the batch tests with natural tourmalin and active alumina being the reference adsorbents, bone char has demonstrated a higher fluoride adsorption capacity. This capacity was found to increase with the increase of fluoride concentration. Furthermore, bone char-based column adsorption experiments indicated that the fluoride removal could be significantly affected by flow rate and bed height. A mass transfer model developed in this study can be used to optimise the bed configuration and operation parameters. Experimental results and predicted data by the model have shown good consistency. A full-scale bone char fixed-bed to treat fluoride-containing groundwater in Northeast China has been successfully operated.

Keywords: adsorption; drinking water; fluoride removal; batch tests; column-fixed bed; bone char biosorbent; active aluminium; groundwater; mass transfer modelling; biomass; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2008.017860

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.9 No.1, pp.59 - 69

Published online: 20 Apr 2008 *

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