Dilute arsenate (As(V)) coprecipitation by ferrihydrite was investigated to determine if treatment of acid mine drainage containing dilute As(V) using coprecipitation is feasible. The sorption density obtained at pH 5 and 7 was nearly identical when As(V) was coprecipitated with ferrihydrite, while it was higher at pH 5 when As(V) was adsorbed on the ferrihydrite. The high sorption density of As(V) to ferrihydrite in coprecipitation with 1-h reaction time suggested that coprecipitation occurs via both adsorption and precipitation. Furthermore, the relationship between residual As(V) and sorption density revealed a BET-type isotherm, with a transition point from a low residual As(V) concentration to a high residual As(V) concentration being observed for all initial As(V) concentrations between 0.15 and 0.44 mmol/dm(3) when the initial molar ratio was 0.56 at pH 5 and 7. X-ray diffraction and the zeta potential revealed that the transition point from surface complexation to precipitation was obtained when the initial As/Fe ratio was 0.4 or 0.5. When dilute As(V) was coprecipitated with ferrihydrite at pH 5 and 7, it was primarily adsorbed as a surface complex when the initial molar ratio was As/Fe < 0.4, while a ferric arsenate and surface complex was formed when this ratio was >or= 0.4.

Although numerous qualitative studies have been published on removal characteristics from wastewater of dilute anions by co-precipitation treatment with Fe(III) or Al salts, detailed mechanisms or quantitative characteristics are not well understood. In this study, a quantitative modeling of co-precipitation phenomena in wastewater containing dilute As(V), Se(VI), Cr(VI) or F with ferrihydrite was tried using a diffuse layer model (DLM), which is one of the most popular and simplest of surface complexation models. Co-precipitation experimental results from wastewater containing 2 mg/dm 3 of Se(VI), 2 mg/dm 3 of Cr(VI), or 15 mg/dm 3 of F with ferrihydrite could be predicted quantitatively by the DLM with a existing set of parameters. However, results from wastewater containing 10 mg/dm 3 of As(V) with ferrihydrite could not be predicted quantitatively but only qualitatively by the model. It was confirmed from the comparison of co-precipitation experimental results and simple adsorption ones that this quantitative difference between experimental and calculation data resulted from the procedure difference between co-precipitation and simple adsorption; in short, the precipitation of ferrihydrite and adsorption of As(V) develop simultaneously in the former system, and only As(V) adsorbs onto prepared ferrihydrite in the latter system.