Predicting Competitive Adsorption Behavior of Major Toxic Anionic Elements Onto Activated Alumina: A Speciation-Based Approach

Abstract

Toxic anionic elements such as arsenic, selenium, and vanadium often co-exist in groundwater. These elements may impact each other when adsorption methods are used to remove them. In this study, we investigated the competitive adsorption behavior of As(V), Se(IV), and V(V) onto activated alumina under different pH and surface loading conditions. Results indicated that these anionic elements interfered with each other during adsorption. A speciation-based model was developed to quantify the competitive adsorption behavior of these elements. This model could predict the adsorption data well over the pH range of 1.5-12 for various surface loading conditions, using the same set of adsorption constants obtained from single-sorbate systems. This model has great implications in accurately predicting the field capacity of activated alumina under various local water quality conditions when multiple competitive anionic elements are present.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Keywords and Phrases

Activated Alumina; Competitive Adsorption; Speciation-Based Model; Arsenic; Selenium; Vanadium

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0304-3894

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2010 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Apr 2010

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