Fluoride removal from drinking water by adsorption using bone char as a biosorbent

As a biomass material, bone char was investigated for the feasibility to be used as a cost-effective biosorbent for fluoride removal from drinking water in groundwater environment. Based on the batch tests with natural tourmalin and active alumina being the reference adsorbents, bone char has demonstrated a higher fluoride adsorption capacity. This capacity was found to increase with the increase of fluoride concentration. Furthermore, bone char-based column adsorption experiments indicated that the fluoride removal could be significantly affected by flow rate and bed height. A mass transfer model developed in this study can be used to optimise the bed configuration and operation parameters. Experimental results and predicted data by the model have shown good consistency. A full-scale bone char fixed-bed to treat fluoride-containing groundwater in Northeast China has been successfully operated.