• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.641-648
• /
• 2013

Arsenic (As) contamination in drinking water is severe problem for about 100 million people who live in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Ethiopia etc. Chronic doses cause skin cancer, blackfoot disease, and cardiac damage. Even though the biosand filter (BSF) is popular in many developing countries, it could not remove effectively hazardous ions as As. Adsorbent is effective and feasible to reduce As. In this study the improved biosand filter (iBSF) was embedded with adsorbent, was tested to evaluate As removal as well as organic removal. In 20 days removal of turbidity, bacteria, and $UV_{254}$ have shown 60-95 % removal. Arsenic was removed more than 99.9 % in the columns embedded with silica oxides of ferric manganese ($FM{\alpha}$) while 5.8 ~ 38.3 % in columns without $FM{\alpha}$. Isotherm test showed that average amount of the adsorbed arsenic on the oxides was 0.56 mg/G.