Arsenic pilot plant operation and results : Anthony, New Mexico.

Abstract

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is conducting pilot scale evaluations of the performance and cost of innovative water treatment technologies aimed at meeting the recently revised arsenic maximum contaminant level (MCL) for drinking water. The standard of 10 µg/L (10 ppb) is effective as of January 2006. The pilot tests have been conducted in New Mexico where over 90 sites that exceed the new MCL have been identified by the New Mexico Environment Department. The pilot test described in this report was conducted in Anthony, New Mexico between August 2005 and December 2006 at Desert Sands Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association (MDWCA) (Desert Sands) Well #3. The pilot demonstrations are a part of the Arsenic Water Technology Partnership program, a partnership between the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF), SNL and WERC (A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development). The Sandia National Laboratories pilot demonstration at the Desert Sands site obtained arsenic removal performance data for fourteen different adsorptive media under intermittent flow conditions. Well water at Desert Sands has approximately 20 ppb arsenic in the unoxidized (arsenite-As(III)) redox state with moderately high total dissolved solids (TDS), mainly due to high sulfate, chloride, and varying concentrations of iron. The water is slightly alkaline with a pH near 8. The study provides estimates of the capacity (bed volumes until breakthrough at 10 ppb arsenic) of adsorptive media in the same chlorinated water. Adsorptive media were compared side-by-side in ambient pH water with intermittent flow operation. This pilot is broken down into four phases, which occurred sequentially, however the phases overlapped in most cases.

A Review of Removal of Pollutants from Water/Wastewater Using Different Types of Nanomaterials

“…A dendrimer-UF system was used for the removal of Cu 2+ and the complete removal from water was obtained [330]. Finally, there are commercial products for efficient removal of arsenic and these include iron oxide nanoparticles and polymers and nanocrystalline titanium dioxide medium in the form of beads [331,332].…”

The minimization of wastes produced during the treatment of arsenic contaminated drinking water

“…The small size of the hydrous iron oxide particles and the high porosity of the polymer substrate ensure that reaction kinetics associated with arsenic uptake are rapid and the arsenic removal capacity is high. The field arsenic capacity and service life is similar to many commercial granular adsorption media [7].…”