Abstract:The oxidation of As(III) to As(V) followed by precipitation and adsorption is thought to be the most effective process for removal of arsenic in industrial wastewater. In this work, the oxidation of As(III) to As(V) with ozone was carried out in an acidic solution. After oxidation, arsenic was removed by precipitation in an iron (III) sulfate system under ambient pressure at 90°C in acid. Batch experimental results show that ozone is quite effective in oxidizing As(III) at low pH. And more than 90% of 5g/l As(III) was removed from the acidic solution by precipitation with Fe 2 (SO 4 ) 3 in 7-8 hours.
Key words: Arsenate, Arsenite, Ozone, Oxidation, Precipitation
INTRODUCTIONRecently, the toxic behavior of arsenic is receiving increased attention as the arsenic pollution has been reported worldwide. Arsenic is a common element which is widely distributed throughout the rock, soil, natural water and marine environments and associated with some base and precious metals in the sulfide ores [1][2][3]. Hereupon, the mining and metallurgical industries have expended considerable research efforts to develop environmentally acceptable methodologies for the arsenic removal from waste water. Under natural conditions As is mostly found in inorganic forms as trivalent arsenite (As(III)) or as oxyanions of pentavalent arsenate (As(V)). In comparison with As(V), As(III) is high mobile and more difficult to be removed from the aqueous solution. All of the arsenic precipitation work carried out involved both ferric iron and pentavalent arsenic in solution, based on the substantially correct premise [2,4]. It is necessary to oxidize the trivalent arsenic to its pentavalent state before the arsenic removal. A lot of researchers focused on the methods for oxidation of As(III) to As(V) using different oxidants [5][6][7]8]. In several studies, ozone applications have been reported for treatment of wastewater and water, but very few studies are for oxidation of As [6][7][8][9][10]. The most characteristic chemical properties of ozone are its strong oxidizing and high standard redox potential according to the reaction conditions. It is strong oxidizing nature and its tendency to transfer an O atom with coproduction of O 2 [4]. The standard redox potentials in acid (1) and in alkaline (2) solutions are the following reactions.