Following the promulgation of the arsenic rule, many water systems are faced
with the need to select a treatment technology to comply with the revised arsenic
maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10.0 µg/L. Adsorption media filters are one of
the technologies available to treat water supplies for compliance with the new arsenic
MCL and are often selected by small and medium sized groundwater systems to comply
with the new drinking water regulations. Although adsorption medias, especially several
of the relatively new proprietary medias, are generally very effective at removing arsenic
from drinking water, their performance can be significantly impacted by the source water
quality. Water quality parameters such as arsenic speciation, pH, concentrations of
competing ions, and other source water characteristics can affect the efficiency and
capacity of adsorption media for removing arsenic from water. The apparent arsenic
removal capacity of any given treatment unit may vary significantly from system to
system as a result of source water quality characteristics other than the total arsenic
concentration. Therefore, selecting and designing an adsorption media treatment system
for arsenic removal requires careful consideration and an evaluation of the effectiveness
of adsorption medias considered for each application.
Systems that intend to use adsorption media technology must select the most
appropriate, both effective and economical, adsorption system and determine the media
capacity for their source water in order to properly design the treatment process.
Laboratory bench-scale testing followed by pilot-scale studies are traditionally used to
evaluate equipment performance, establish design criteria for a full-scale treatment
system, and gain regulatory approval for use of new treatment technologies. Water
quality data from three adsorption media pilot tests are used here to demonstrate the
impacts that source water characteristics, including arsenic speciation, pH, and
concentrations of competing ions can have on arsenic adsorption system performance.
Utilizing the pilot test data, the impacts of water quality characteristics on system design
and operation, including the selection of a treatment process, economic analyses,
treatment vessel configuration, chemical usage impacts, and other operational factors are
discussed. Includes 2 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 350 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 19 |
| Published : | 06/01/2006 |
