REMOVAL OF ARSENIC FROM WATER BY USING ACTIVATED RED MUD

Abstract

    Red mud is the byproduct from alumina industry and has high metal oxides content which areactive components for the adsorption of anion pollutants. In this study, Alumin Lam Dong,Tay Nguyen red mud was characterized and investigated for removal of Arsenic from water.The red mud shows a significant powder structure with very high increase of surface area ofalmost 1.5 times after activation by heat and acid treatment. The factors influencing theadsorption including acid concentration, pH and contact time were also investigated. Theresults show that the adsorption properties of activated red mud depend on pH values andacid concentration. The adsorption of As(III) and As(V) reach the maximum when pH are 7.5and 4; the contact time are 45 minutes and 90 minutes corresponding to the maximumadsorption capacity of 0.48 mg/g and 0.50 mg/g, respectively. The Langmuir isotherm modelfits well the arsenic adsorption showing one layer adsorption property.

Keywords: red mud, activated red mud, bauxite residue, arsenic adsorption, by-productrecycling.