Fe-Oxides in Water Remediation Technologies Fe-Oxides in Water Remediation

摘要

Water is essential for life, a strategic resource for every country and population. Its availability and sanitary safety is highly connected with the health and economic status of a population. The burden of disease due to polluted water is a major public health problem throughout the world. Many pollutants in water streams have been identified as toxic and harmful to the environment and human health, and among them arsenic, mercury and cadmium are considered those with the highest priority. Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and reactions involving iron play a major role in the environmental cycling of a range of important contaminants. Our earlier research has shown that Fe oxides/ oxyhydroxides are particularly effective adsorbents of a range of contaminants (toxic metals), due to their high (reactive) specific surface area. It has been proven that Fe is particularly effective in As removal as a chemical bond is created on Fe surface and As is stabilised and can be safely deposited. Removal of contaminants from waste streams through precipitation with (hydrous) ferric oxides is an established methodology in a number of industrial processes (high density sludge systems for arsenic control in effluents from the mining industry, and in the treatment of textile dye effluent).