Modification of rapid sand filtration by activated carbonpowder (ACP) for heavy metals (HMs) adsorption:Case study Babol River

Heavy metals (HMs) release in the surface water and river should be treated. Sand filtration (SF) is known astraditional in situ water treatment. However, SF technique may not be able to remove HMs from waterefficiently. In this research, the performance of traditional SF on HMs removal was modified by addingactivated carbon (AC). Real samples of contaminated water from Babol River was used to evaluate Pb and Curemoval by SF and modified SF with AC. The effect of operation parameter such as AC dosage, contact time,initial concentration of HMs and pH on removal efficiency were studied. Moreover, SEM, EDX and BETanalyses were performed to investigate HMs removal mechanism. According to the results, adding ۵۰ g/kgof AC to SF could increase the removal efficiencies of Pb and Cu from ۴۶% (SF) to ۷۸% and ۶۸%, respectivelywithin ۳۰ min contact time. Initial concentrations of HMs and pH variation showed negative effect on HMsremoval. The results of SEM-EDX and BET analyses revealed that AC has high surface area which caneffectively adsorb HMs through phyico-chemical mechanisms. This study suggest that modification oftraditional sand filtration by activated carbon, as a promising approach for heavy metals removal fromcontaminated surface water.

Keywords:

Sand filtration , River water treatment , Activated carbon , Babol River