Study of the removal of residual aluminum through the biopolymers carboxymethylcellulose, chitin, and chitosan

Abstract

Aluminum is currently associated to health problems, especially dementia, and drinking water is one of the most potential sources to Al³⁺ ingestion. In this work, the Al³⁺ removal capacities of the biopolymers carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), chitin (QTN), and chitosan (QUIT) were evaluated for synthetic water with a drinking water Al³⁺ range level and well water with a high concentration of natural Al³⁺. Isothermal and kinetics essays were carried out. The laboratorial tests have demonstrated that CMC is not an efficient Al³⁺ removal agent, whereas QTN and QUIT have shown very promising results. QTN and QUIT best fitted Sips isotherm model. However, the Freundlich model cannot be discarded for QUIT. Pseudo-second-order kinetic models fitted very well for the experimental conditions for both QTN and QUIT. It was notice that QUIT removes Al³⁺ faster than QTN, with complete decontamination of well water occurring within 120 min of contact time.

Keywords:

• Drinking water
• Aluminum removal
• Carboxymethylcellulose
• Chitin
• Chitosan

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge CAPES and FAPESC for the support and sponsorship and SAMAE (Araranguá-SC-Brazil) for providing well water sample to accomplish this work.

Notes

Presented at the International Conference on Desalination for the Environment, Clean Water and Energy, European Desalination Society, 23–26 April 2012, Barcelona, Spain