Title: Adapting a drinking water treatment technology for arsenic removal to the context of a small, low-income California community

Abstract

Small, low-income, and rural communities across the United States are disproportionately exposed to arsenic contaminated drinking water because existing treatment solutions are too expensive and difficult to operate. This paper describes efforts to overcome some barriers and limitations of conventional iron electrocoagulation (Fe-EC) to enable its use in the rural Californian (U.S.) context. Barriers and limitations of Fe-EC's application in rural California considered in this work include: 1) Frequent labor intensive electrode cleaning is required to overcome rust accumulation, 2) Electrolysis durations are long, reducing throughput for a given system size, and 3) Waste needs compliance with California standards. We report results from an investigation for overcoming these limitations via a field trial on a farm in Allensworth, a small, low-income, rural community in California. Our strategies to overcome each of the above barriers and limitations are respectively, 1) operating the Fe-EC reactor at high current density to result in sustained Fe production, 2) operating at high charge dosage rate with external H₂O₂, and 3) characterization of the arsenic-laden waste, and are discussed further in the paper. Main findings are: (1) Fe-EC removed arsenic consistently below the federal (and state) standard of 10 µg/L, (2) high current density failed tomore » sustain Fe production whereas low current density did not, (3) electrolysis time decreased from >1 hour to <2 min with H₂O₂ dosing of 5 mg/L at higher charge dosage rates, and (4) dilution of As-sludge is required to comply with State's non-hazardous waste status, (5) discrepancies were observed between lab and field results in using current density to overcome labor-intensive electrode cleanings. Finally, implications of overcoming limitations to scale-up of Fe-EC in relevant California communities are discussed.« less

Authors:

Glade, Sara; Bandaru, Siva RS; Nahata, Mohit ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Nahata, Mohit"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-2164-0280"

Majmudar, Jay; Gadgil, Ashok

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Gadgil, Ashok"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0357-9455"

Publication Date:

Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2021

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI Identifier:

1822499

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1819443

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Water Research

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Water Research Journal Volume: 204 Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1354

Publisher:

Elsevier

Country of Publication:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; drinking water treatment; low-income communities; iron electrocoagulation; arsenic; California