Iron coated sponge in arsenic removal

Arsenic (As) contamination in water has raised a grave concern in many regions of the world. Arsenic can lead to a number of health problems even at very low concentration. This paper presents the laboratory-scale experimental results on the specific treatment technology: iron coated sponge (IOCSp) adsorption in As removal. The results indicated that IOCSp could remove 47.3% to 65% of As (III) and As (V) after a 1 hour contact with IOCSp (initial As concentration = 260 μg/l; 0.15g sponge/100ml solution). A nine hour-adsorption led to a very high As removal efficiency (more than 92.4% removal for both As (III) and As (V)). Each gram of IOCSp adsorbed about 160μg of As (III) and As (V) upon a 9 hour - contact of IOCSp with the As solution. After adsorption, IOCSp can be easily regenerated by NaOH.