Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment Removal of Toxic Trace Elements with Emphasis on Arsenic, Fluoride and Uranium

Focuses on the application of membrane technologies in removing toxic metals\metalloids from water. Particular attention is devotedto the removal of arsenic, uranium, and fluoride. These compounds are all existing in the earth’s crust at levels between two and five thousands micrograms per kg (parts per million) on average and these compounds can be considered highly toxic to humans, who are exposed tothem primarily from air, food and water. In order to comply with the new maximum contaminant level, numerous studies have been undertaken to improve established treatments or to develop novel treatment technologies for removing toxic metals from contaminated surface and groundwater. Among the technologies available, applicable for water treatment, membrane technology has been identified as a promising technology to remove such toxic metals from water. The bookdescribes both pressure driven (traditional processes, such as Nanofiltration, Reverse Osmosis, Ultrafiltration,etc) and more advanced membrane processes (such as forward osmosis, membrane distillation, and membrane bio-reactors) employed in the application of interest. Key aspect of this book is to provide information on both the basics of membrane technologies and on the results depending on the type of technology employed.

Part I Generality on arsenic, fluoride and uranium 1. Fluoride, uranium and arsenic: occurrence, mobility, chemistry, human health impacts and concerns Alberto Figoli, Jochen Bundschuh & Jan Hoinkis1.1 Introduction1.2 Fluoride1.3 Uranium1.4 Arsenic Part II Traditional membrane processes 2. Arsenic removal by low pressure-driven membrane operationsAlfredo Cassano2.1 Introduction2.2 Microfiltration and ultrafiltration2.3 Arsenic removal by using microfiltration2.4 Arsenic removal by using ultrafiltration2.5 Conclusions 3. Fluoride and uranium removal by nanofiltrationStefan-André Schmidt, Tiziana Marino, Catherine Aresipathi, Shamim-Ahmed Deowan, Priyanath N. Pathak, Prasanta Kumar Mohaptra, Jan Hoinkis & Alberto Figoli3.1 Introduction3.2 Common removal technologies3.3 Removal of dissolved fluoride and uranium by NF3.4 Conclusions and outlook 4. The use of reverse osmosis (RO) for removal of arsenic, fluoride and uranium from drinking waterPriyanka Mondal, Anh Thi Kim Tran & Bart Van der Bruggen4.1 Reverse osmosis: background and transport mechanism4.2 Types of RO membranes4.3 Membrane modules and their application4.4 Reverse osmosis for arsenic, fluoride and uranium removal from water4.5 Experimental study for removal of arsenic and fluoride from water by RO and loose RO membranes4.6 Conclusion 5. Electro-membrane processes for the removal of trace toxic metal ions from waterSvetlozar Velizarov, Adrian Oehmen, Maria Reis & João Crespo5.1 Introduction5.2 Case studies5.3 Concluding remarks and future needs 6. Fluoride, arsenic and uranium removal from water using adsorbent materials and integrated membrane systemsHacene Mahmoudi, Noreddine Ghaffour & Mattheus Goosen6.1 Introduction6.2 Fluoride6.3 Arsenic6.4 Uranium6.5 Concluding remarks and outlook Part III New trends in materials and process development 7. Biosorbent materials and membranes for the treatment of toxic ions from waterMir Saeed Seyed Dorraji, Vahid Vatanpour & Abdolreza Mirmohseni7.1 Introduction7.2 Mechanism of metal biosorption and factors affecting its performance7.3 Equilibrium models for bioadsorption process7.4 Choice of metals for bioadsorption studies7.5 Biosorbent materials as a precursor in membrane preparation7.6 Hybrid of biosorption and membrane processes7.7 Biofiltration7.8 Bioadsorption of arsenic, uranium and fluoride7.9 Conclusion 8. Liquid membrane separations of uraniumPrasanta Kumar Mohapatra8.1 Introduction8.2 Liquid membranes8.3 Liquid membrane separations using different extractants8.4 Applications of liquid membranes for uranium recovery8.5 Conclusion and perspectives 9. Supported liquid membrane technology in the removal and recovery of toxic ions from waterRaffaele Molinari & Pietro Argurio9.1 Introduction9.2 Theory9.3 SLM application in the removal and recovery of toxic ions from water9.4 Conclusion 10. Polymer inclusion membranes for the separation of uranium and arsenic from dilute aqueous solutionsAlexander M. St John, Spas D. Kolev & Clàudia Fontàs10.1 Introduction10.2 Extraction and separation of solutes10.3 Separation of uranium10.4 Separation of arsenic10.5 Conclusion and outlook 11. Removal of arsenic by nanofiltration: a case study on novel membrane materialsJianfeng Song, Xue-Mei Li, Claudia Ursino, Alberto Figoli & Tao He11.1 Introduction11.2 Nanofiltration (NF)11.3 Removal of arsenic by nanofiltration11.4 High performance NF membranes11.5 Cost evaluation11.6 Summary and outlook 12. Fate and removal of trace metals/metalloids and fluoride from urban wastewater by membrane bioreactors: pilot and full-scale experiencesEvina Katsou, Simos Malamis, Franco Cecchi & Francesco Fatone12.1 Introduction12.2 Myths and realities about MBR12.3 Occurrence, fate and removal of trace metals, metalloids and fluoride12.4 Conclusion 13. Membrane distillation for the treatment of waters contaminated by arsenic, fluoride and uraniumAlessandra Criscuoli & Maria Concetta Carnevale13.1 Introduction13.2 Traditional treatments13.3 Application of the membrane distillation technique13.4 Synthesis of the literature results13.5 Conclusions and remarks 14. Removal of inorganic and organic trace contaminants by forward osmosis membranesQianhong She & Chuyang Y. Tang14.1 Introduction14.2 Fundamentals of mass transport and solute rejection in FO14.3 Removal of organic contaminants by FO membranes14.4 Removal of inorganic contaminants by FO membranes14.5 Conclusions and outlook Subject index Book series page

Born 1970 in La Spezia, Italy. Alberto Figoli got his PhD in Chemical Technologies at the Membrane Technology Group, University of Twente (The Netherlands), in 2001. Since 2001, he is working as permanent researcher at the Institute on Membrane Technology, ITM-CNR (Italy). He is expert in the field of membrane technology, particularly in membrane preparation and characterisation and membrane operations related to environmental issues. He attended more than 100 national and international conferences on membranes with oral and poster presentations and as chairman. He also presented lectures at courses on membrane operations as invited speaker. In 2006, he received the prize on Scientific Productivity "Food Packaging Research GSICA Awards", on the basis of the scientific work he carried out during the years on food packaging issues. He presented several book chapters on Membrane Preparation and Application and he is author of more than 60 scientific papers published in international journals and of a US patent on membrane technology application. Alberto is member of several associations that deal with membranes (EMS, GISCA) and is involved as scientific responsible for ITM-CNR in several national and international and Eurpean projects.