Antimony Removal from Water by Adsorption to Iron-Based Sorption Materials

The paper presents the results of antimony removal from the Dubrava water resource using a pilot plant system capable of taking samples from different heights of adsorption materials. The adsorbents GEH, CFH12, CFH18, and Bayoxide E33 and two experimental stainless columns with bleeder valves located at heights of 20, 45, and 70 cm of the adsorption media and 91 cm (GEH), 94 cm (CFH18), 87 cm (CFH12), and 87 cm (Bayoxide E33) filter media high were used. The results of the experiments show that the most suitable material for removing antimony from water is GEH. For an antimony concentration of 78.4-108.0 mu g/L in raw water and a filtration rate of 5.6-5.9 m/h, the limit concentration of 5 mu g/L at the outlet of the 70-cm high adsorption media was reached at the bed volume 1788. In a case when the media height was 91 cm, the antimony concentration in the treated water would reach the limit value of 5 mu g/L after a 672-h operation of the stainless column at the bed volume 4256. Under these conditions, the adsorption capacity was calculated at 184 mu g/g. The adsorption capacities and bed volumes of the other adsorbents were lower in comparison to GEH.