Feasibility Study on the Removal of Arsenic from Drinking Water by Using Biomass

Abstract

Presently, arsenic poisoning is an important issue in Bangladesh, where at least thirty percent of the water wells have an arsenic level above the drinking water standard prescribed by Bangladesh National standard (GOB, 1997). In Bangladesh, people drink ground water with higher arsenic level which eventually cause death or serious health risk. Among the locally available biomass, living water hyacinth, charcoal (obtained from mango tree), dried root of water hyacinth, and used tea leaf were used to remove arsenic from drinking water. All these four methods demonstrated considerable effectiveness in removing arsenic. Significant amount of arsenic was removed by Water hyacinth. From water with an initial arsenic concentration of 63.56 ppb, water hyacinth it reduced to a minimum level of 41.54 ppb and dried water hyacinth root reduced the level to 46.86 ppb. The other two biomasses: used tea leaf to 57.46 ppb and charcoal sedimentation reduced the level to 48.74 ppb, respectively.