Hardened Paste of Portland Cement—A New Low-Cost Adsorbent for the Removal of Arsenic from Water

Abstract

Portland cement has been used as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from the water environment. In the batch experiments conducted at an initial concentration of 0.2 ppm of arsenate, it was found that arsenate could be removed up to 95%. Kinetic profiles were developed for various conditions. Effect of adsorbent dose, effects of common ions such as Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺, Cl⁻, , , and the effect of pH was studied. Adsorption isotherm studies were performed and it was observed that the Freundlich isotherm was followed with a better correlation than the Langmuir isotherm. Arsenite could also be removed up to ˜88% using the same material. A new detection method for arsenate/arsenite was developed for routine analysis of arsenic and used during the entire study.

Keywords:

• Portland cement
• Adsorption
• Arsenate removal

Acknowledgment

Mr. Subrata Kundu and Sujit Kumar Ghosh are thankful to Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, Ms. Madhuri Mandal CSIR, New Delhi and Ms. Sudipa Panigrahi IUC, Mumbai for financial assistance.