Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006TX225B

Arsenic Removal by Novel Nanoporous Adsorbents-Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Regenerability

Institute: Texas
Year Established: 2006 Start Date: 2006-03-01 End Date: 2007-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $5,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $10,091

Principal Investigators: Han Dongsuk, Bill Batchelor

Project Summary: Arsenic contamination in groundwater is a serious threat to human health due to its chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity. To meet stringent standards for arsenic in drinking water that have been established by the US EPA, new treatment technologies are needed. The objective of this research is to develop and characterize novel adsorbents for this purpose. Nanoporous titania and nano-sized titania incorporated mesoporous silica (i.e., Ti-SBA-15) will be investigated. Specific tasks to be accomplished in this research are: synthesize nanoporous adsorbents, determine kinetics of arsenic removal, determine equilibrium characteristics of arsenic removal, optimize conditions for arsenic removal, and determine capacity of nanoporous adsorbents to be regenerated. Preliminary results show that these nanoporous adsorbents are likely to have desirable characteristics for application in water treatment processes.