Arsenic Removal Efficiency in Aqueous Solutions Using Reverse Osmosis and Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles

Arsenic is one of the most hazardous pollutants of water resources which threaten human health as well as animals. Therefore arsenic removal from water resources is the priority of health programs. There are several ways to remove arsenic. In this study, reverse osmosis and zero-valent iron nanoparticles methods have been used in a laboratory scale. To perform the test, the variables of temperature, arsenic concentration, pH, iron nanoparticle concentration and mixing time were considered. The results indicated that in both methods of reverse osmosis and iron nanoparticle, through increasing arsenic concentration, arsenic removal efficiency has been also increased. At concentration of 1.5 mg per litre in reverse osmosis method, the maximum efficiency was achieved by 98% and 95.2% removal of arsenic respectively. The effect of temperature and pH were similar in reverse osmosis; by increasing these two variables, arsenic removal percentage also increased. The highest removal rates of 95.98% and 95.56% were observed at pH 9 and Temperature 30oC respectively. The results indicated that in iron nanoparticles method the arsenic removal efficiency increases by increasing mixing time and temperature, while it decreases with increasing pH.