Fluoride removal from drinking water by adsorption using bone char as a biosorbent

As a biomass material, bone char was investigated for the feasibility to be used as a cost-effective biosorbent for fluoride removal from drinking water in groundwater environment. Based on the batch tests with natural tourmalin and active alumina being the reference adsorbents, BF (referring to bone char) has demonstrated a higher fluoride adsorption capacity. This capacity was found being increased with the increase of fluoride concentration. Furthermore, BF based column adsorption experiments indicated that the fluoride removal could be significantly affected by flow rate and bed height. A mass transfer model developed in this study can be used to optimize the bed configuration and operation parameters. Experimental results and predicted data by the model have shown a good consistent. A full-scale BF fixed-bed to treat fluoride-containing groundwater in Northeast China has been successfully operated since 2002.