Locally-affordable arsenic remediation for rural South Asia using electrocoagulation

Bangladesh and neighbouring areas face health threats from drinking arsenic-contaminated groundwater. The challenge is to develop arsenic remediation that is (1) affordable to most of the local population, (2) robust and easy to maintain long term, (3) technically effective for removing arsenic down to 10 ug/L in the presence of other competing ions in the water, and (4) does not require hazardous chemicals or produce excess levels of arsenic-laden waste. Electrochemical Arsenic Removal (ECAR) uses a small DC current and ordinary steel electrodes to produce iron rust in the arsenic-contaminated groundwater that binds arsenic and can be removed by filtration. We describe performance results using synthetic and real groundwater and describe the design of a 100L reactor. We demonstrate low production of waste sludge that is non-hazardous according to US EPA standards, and show preliminary results of successful sludge stabilization in concrete. Finally we estimate the operating costs

Locally affordable and scalable arsenic remediation for South Asia using ECAR

An estimated 60 million low income people in South Asia are affected by chronic exposure to naturally occurring arsenic in drinking water sources. Few household and community level technologies have proven to be sustainable and scalable. Electro-chemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) is a low cost, robust, highly effective and easily scalable technology that has been designed to fit within a scalable and sustainable business model. In this paper, we describe ECAR treatment results from arsenic-contaminated synthetic and real groundwater and field trials of 100L and 600L scale prototype systems operated at rural schools in West Bengal, India. We demonstrate robust and reliable arsenic removal, the low production of waste sludge and the potential for successful sludge stabilization in concrete. We estimate the operating costs and benefits of ECAR based on field results