Arsenic removal by conventional and membrane technology: An overview

441-450Presently used arsenic removal technology has been reviewed, pointing especially to the promise of membrane technologies as a practical means of purification. The membrane technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF). Among them, the applications of the first two have proved to be reliable in removing arsenic from water. The influence of membrane materials, membrane type, operating conditions such as temperature, pressure, pH of the feed solution and feed concentration on arsenic removal efficiency by membrane technologies are discussed. This paper also provides a comparison between conventional technologies and membrane technologies for arsenic removal and concludes that membrane technology is preferred for water treatments to meet the maximum contaminant limit (MCL) standard