Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) for Rural South Asia
Abstract
Over 140 million people worldwide are slowly being poisoned from arsenic-contaminated groundwater. Almost half live in rural villages of South Asia, too poor to afford arsenic remediation techniques that are only cost effective on large scales. Low cost point-of-use methods are either ineffective for the high concentrations in the region and/or suffer from high maintenance and low acceptability by the public. Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) overcomes the obstacles of current methods and can be used affordably and on a small community scale, allowing for potential rapid dissemination into rural areas to help mediate this arsenic crisis. Our findings show that ECAR can reduce arsenic levels to below the WHO limit of 10 ppb in synthetic arsenic-contaminated groundwater as well as real groundwater from affected regions in Bangladesh and Cambodia. We will present two recent prototype designs, including a continuous flow device with cylindrical co-axial electrodes and a batch reactor with parallel plate electrodes. We will present performance results, as well as challenges and strengths of the cylindrical design discovered in the field. We will also present initial lab tests of the parallel plate reactor that compare different agitation speeds, the use of impellors versus aeration for agitation, and several plate configurations. Finally, we will briefly discuss the use of electrochemical remediation in a small community clean water center capable of selling affordable clean water for ~US 2.5¢ per person per day with full cost recovery, including a small off-grid electricity source.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFM.H13B0954V
- Keywords:
-
- 1000 GEOCHEMISTRY;
- 1831 HYDROLOGY / Groundwater quality;
- 3947 MINERAL PHYSICS / Surfaces and interfaces