There is a growing concern all over the world about
contamination of ground water with Arsenic. One of the
major repercussions of arsenic contamination is
degradation of animal hygiene that ultimately affects
sustainable livestock production. The reports suggest that
concentration of Arsenic in ground water of twenty one
countries is well above the guideline values. Use of such
contaminated water for animal husbandry and livestock
production compromises with the hygienic value of animal
products. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop
low cost treatment technologies for reducing the level of
arsenic in ground water to maintain the hygiene and
sustainability of livestock production. Most of the
traditional treatment technologies are costly and less
effective in reducing arsenic concentration to safer limits.
Therefore, during present study, an attempt was made to
design a low-cost algal adsorbent based filtration unit
consisting of polyurethane columns with entrapped algal
adsorbents. The column was made of adsorbents of algal
origin like agar-agar, alginic acid, calcium alginate and
Spirulina platensis biomass entrapped in polyurethane
foam matrix. The performance of the column was
assessed in terms of removal efficiency and the quantity
of metal sequestered in unit time interval. The results
from the study the show that algal biosorbents and S.
platensis biomass combination has a capacity to adsorbed
arsenic from aqueous solution. The simple design, easy
fabrication and no energy requirement for the operation of
the filtration unit developed under the present study is
suitable to rural areas where arsenic contamination of
ground water is adversely affecting the animal hygiene
and sustained livestock production
