Removal of Toxic Elements and Microbial Contaminants from Groundwater Using Low-Cost Treatment Options

Abstract

Purpose of Review This paper reviews various low-cost treatment techniques such as adsorption, permeable reactive barrier, and biological techniques for the simultaneous removal of chemical and microbial contaminants from groundwater and discusses treatment mechanisms of different treatment techniques. This paper also discusses the challenges of groundwater treatment, how to choose the appropriate treatment technique, and cost analysis of groundwater treatment. Recent Findings Various treatment technologies have been used for the treatment of groundwater: physical, chemical, and biological technologies with different success rates. In the literature, various adsorbents have been successfully synthesized from low-cost and environmentally friendly materials. Adsorption is considered an efficient treatment technique for the removal of both toxic elements and pathogens by utilizing different adsorbents. For example, the nanostructures of MgO with a BET surface area of up to 171 m2/g obtained a very high adsorption capacity of 29,131 mg/g for fluoride ions in water, while the incorporation of iron in activated carbon has improved its adsorption capacity to 51.3 mg/g for arsenic. Moreover, certain adsorbents have shown the capability to remove 99% of the rotavirus and adenovirus from groundwater. Summary Groundwater resources are contaminated with toxic metals and pathogens. Therefore, water treatment technologies should be evaluated for their efficiency to remove such contaminants. Determination of the most cost-effective and efficient treatment technique is not an easy task and requires the understanding of various aspects such as the contaminants present in water, the reuse options considered, and cost analysis of the treatment technique.

A shared future: chemistry's engagement is essential for resilience of people and planet

“…Strengthening resilience in the face of the oncoming challenges will require intensified efforts to ensure water quality and to innovate large-scale and environmentally benign processes for the desalination of seawater [66] and purification of wastewaters [67], as well as for the development of cleaner industrial processes that create less contamination and require less abstraction and consumptive use of water in the first place [68]. Chemistry roles include the identification, quantification and removal of toxic contaminants, such as arsenic, fluoride, a variety of heavy metals and microbes [69], and applications of nanotechnology [70], such as nanofiltration membranes involving graphene [71] and other materials [72], to produce drinking water and supermagnetic and other iron oxide nanoparticles for decontamination of water and for wastewater purification and recycling [73,74]. Processes for harvesting water from atmospheric moisture, including through the use of hydrogels, other polymers and metal-organic frameworks are options being explored [75,76].…”

Chemical and Microbiological Contamination of Natural Water Resources in Saedinenie, Bulgaria

“…This makes the studied waters unsuitable for direct irrigation in agriculture. A possible alternative can include pre-treatment of waters for heavy metal removal and their subsequent use (Da'ana et al, 2021). As a part of EU regulated Bulgarian vulnerable zones the concentration of N in freshwater basins is essential to be monitored, especially it is most soluble and ecologically significant formnitrate ions (Ali et al, 2019;Nitcheva et al, 2020).…”

Role of nanohybrid NiO–Fe3O4 in enhancing the adsorptive performance of activated carbon synthesized from Yemeni-Khat leave in removal of Pb (II) and Hg (II) from aquatic systems

“…Elements having atomic weights above 63 are heavy metals and have a specific gravity exceeding 4.0 [ 13 ]. Numerous types of these heavy metals can go through the environment by metal smelting, metal planting or by-product that come from manufacturing process and refining operation [ [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] ]. Interested researchers have documented the fatal effect of non-essential heavy metals encountered in the surface and underground water including; mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium, which are primary heavy metals [ 18 , 19 ].…”