Radium desorption, manganese and iron dissolution from sand filters of a conventional ground water treatment plant under reductive conditions

Sand filters are used as a filter bed in many ground water treatment plants to remove the physical contaminants and oxidation products. A build-up of radioactivity may take place on the granules, where iron and manganese oxides are deposited and form thin films on the surface of sand filter. The oxides of iron and manganese play an important role in adsorbing radium from ground water. The disposal of those granules makes a significant problem. A batch technique is used for solubilization of radium from sand filters in the presence of some organic acids, which act as reducing agents. These acids are formic acid, acetic acid, benzoic acid, succinic acid, oxalic acid, phthalic acid, and adipic acid. The data were obtained as a function of acidity, temperature, contact time and liquid/solid ratio particle size and shaking speed. It was found that oxalic acid was the best for radium removal. The effectiveness of these acids on radium removal was as follows: oxalic acid > phthalic acid > adipic acid > succinic acid > formic acid > acetic acid. The maximum removal obtained was 69.9% at 1M oxalic acid at 8 ml/g ratio. Reaction kinetics and mechanism parameters of the dissolution process were studied and compared with other published data.