Treatment Technologies for Arsenic Removal from Groundwater: review paper

Arsenic is a significantly toxic contaminant in groundwater in many countries. Numerous treatment technologies have been developed to remove arsenic from groundwater. The USEPA recommends several technologies as the best available technology (BAT) candidates for the removal of arsenic. Based on the USEPA classification, arsenic treatment technologies can be divided into four technologies such as precipitation, membrane, ion exchange, and adsorption technology. The recent amendment of arsenic drinking water standard from 50 to 10 mu g/L in the United States have impacted technology selection and application for arsenic removal from arsenic contaminated groundwater. Precipitation technology is most widely used to treat arsenic contaminated groundwater and can be applied to large water treatment facility. In contrast, membrane, ion exchange, and adsorption technologies are used to be applied to small water treatment system. Recently, the arsenic treatment technology in the United States and Europe move towards adsorption technology to be applied to small water treatment system since capital and maintenance costs are relatively low and operation is simple. The principals of treatment technologies, effect factors on arsenic removal, arsenic treatment efficiencies of real treatment systems are reviewed in this paper.