Due to recent changes in regulatory discharge limits, selenium removal from electric utility wastewaters is becoming an important issue. In this work, Mg–Al–CO3 layered double hydroxide (LDH) in granular form was evaluated for treatment of selenium-containing groundwater in small scale column tests. The LDH material showed good capacity for removing selenate from groundwaters that contained very high levels of sulfate and total dissolved solids. Column tests were investigated using the granular LDH to treat groundwater containing trace levels of selenium <2 ppb. Removal of sulfate using chemical pretreatment of the groundwater resulted in about 3× higher selenium loading onto the granular LDH. The structural changes in the media after exhaustion and analysis of the effluent water from the column test were also studied to better understand the species removed by the LDH. These results show that the LDH is a promising sorbent for removing selenium from wastewaters with high levels of sulfate and background species.

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Selenium is an essential trace element but is increasingly becoming a contaminant of concern in the electric power industry due to the challenges of removing solubilized selenate anions, particularly in the presence of sulfate. In this work, we evaluate granulated layered double hydroxide (LDH) materials as sorbents for selenium removal from wastewaters obtained from a natural gas power plant with the aim to elucidate the effect of competing ions on the sorption capacities for selenium removal. We first present jar test data, followed by small-scale column testing in 0.43 inch (1.1 cm) and 2 inch (5.08 cm) diameter testbed columns for the treatment of as-obtained cooling tower blowdown waters and plant wastewaters. Finally, we present field results from a pilot-scale study evaluating the LDH media for treatment of cooling tower blowdown water. We find that despite the high levels of total dissolved solids and competing sulfate ions, the selenium oxoanions and other regulated metals such as chromium and arsenic are successfully removed using LDH media without needing any pre-treatment or pH adjustment of the wastewater.

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