Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Enhanced fluoride removal by hydroxyapatite-modified activated alumina

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Fluoride in drinking water is beneficial at low concentrations but is considered harmful for the human health when present at concentrations exceeding 1.5 mg/L. Prevalence of high concentration of fluoride in drinking water, combined with the nonavailability of alternate viable sources, makes the treatment of the contaminated water an essential task. In this study, we report the synthesis and characterization of a hybrid adsorbent; hydroxyapatite-modified activated alumina (HMAA) prepared by dispersing nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite inside activated alumina granules. The composite adsorbent provided a synergy toward fluoride removal from contaminated drinking water. The hybrid adsorbent possesses a maximum adsorption capacity of 14.4 mg F/g which is at least five times higher than the virgin-activated alumina, which has been used extensively for fluoride removal. HMAA was regenerated using six bed volumes of a solution containing commonly available innocuous chemicals. The adsorbent was subjected to multiple numbers of operating cycles within a column, each cycle consisting of one adsorption run followed by regeneration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Public Health Association (APHA) (2012) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. American public health association, American water works association, water environment federation publication. 22nd edition. APHA, Washington D.C

  • Apparao BV, Meenakshi S, Karthikayan G (1998) Nalgonada technique of defluoridation of water Indian. J Environ Prot 10:292–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayoob S, Gupta AK, Bhat VT (2008) A Conceptual overview on sustainable technologies for the defluoridation of drinking water. Crit Rev Environ Sci Tech 38:401–470

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Azbar N, Turkman A (2000) Defluoridation in drinking waters. Water Sci Technol 42:403–407

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chernet T, Trafi Y, Valles V (2002) Mechanism of degradation of the quality of natural water in the lakes region of the Ethiopian rift valley. Water Res 35:2819–2832

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durmaz F, Kara H, Cengeloglu Y, Ersoz M (2005) Fluoride removal by Donnan dialysis with anion exchange membranes. Desalination 177:51–57

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farooqi A, Masuda H, Kusakabe M, Naseem M, Firdous N (2007) Distribution of highly arsenic and fluoride contaminated groundwater from east Punjab, Pakistan and the controlling role of anthropogenic pollutants in the natural hydrological cycle. Geochem J 41:213–234

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gao S, Cui J, Wei ZG (2009) Study on the fluoride adsorption of various apatite materials in aqueous solution. J Fluorine Chem 130:1035–1041

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghorai S, Pant KK (2004) Investigations on the column performance of fluoride adsorption by activated alumina in a fixed bed. Chem Eng J 98:165–173

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghorai S, Pant KK (2005) Equilibrium, kinetics and breakthrough studies for adsorption of fluoride on activated alumina. Sep Purif Technol 42:265–271

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hichour M, Persin F, Sandeaux J, Gavach C (2000) Fluoride removal from waters by Donnan dialysis. Sep Purif Technol 18:1–11

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hou D, Wang J, Zhao C, Wang B, Luan Z, Sun X (2010) Fluoride removal from brackish groundwater by direct contact membrane distillation. J Environ Sci 22:1860–1867

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hu K, Dickson JM (2006) Nanofiltration membrane performance on fluoride removal from water. J Membr Sci 279:529–538

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kabay N, Arar O, Samatya S, Yüksel U, Yüksel M (2008) Separation of fluoride from aqueous solution by electrodialysis: effect of process parameters and other ionic species. J Hazard Mater 153:107–113

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald LH, Pathak G, Singer B, Jaffe PR (2011) An integrated approach to address endemic fluorosis in Jharkhand, India. J Water Res Protection 3:457–472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malaisamy R, Talla-Nwafo A, Jones KL (2011) Polyelectrolyte modification of nanofiltration membrane for selective removal of monovalent anions. Sep Purif Technol 77:367–374

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meenakshi S, Maheshwari RC (2006) Fluoride in drinking water and its removal. J Hazard Mater 137:456–463

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mohapatra M, Anand S, Mishra BK, Giles DE, Singh P (2009) Review of fluoride removal from drinking water. J Environ Manage 91:67–77

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ndiaye PI, Moulin P, Dominguez L, Millet JC, Charbit F (2005) Removal of fluoride from electronic industrial effluent by RO membrane separation. Desalination 173:25–32

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ramos RL, Castillo NAM, Azuara AJ, Barron JM, Rodriguez LEL, Rosales JMM, Pina AA (2008) Fluoride removal from water solution by adsorption on activated alumina prepared from pseudo-boehmite. J Environ Eng Manage 18:301–309

    Google Scholar 

  • Rao NV, Mohan R, Bhaskaran CS (1998) Studies on defluoridation of water. J Fluorine Chem 41:17–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reardon EL, Wang Y (2000) A limestone reactor for fluoride removal from wastewaters. Environ Sci Technol 34:3247–3253

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rehman I, Bonfield W (1997) Characterization of hydroxyapatite and carbonated apatite by photo acoustic FTIR spectroscopy. J Mater Sci Mater Med 8:1–4

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Richards LA, Vuachère M, Schäfer AI (2010) Impact of pH on the removal of fluoride, nitrate and boron by nanofiltration/reverse osmosis. Desalination 261:331–337

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saha S (1993) Treatment of aqueous effluent for fluoride removal. Water Res 27:1347–1350

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sahli MA, Annouar A, Tahaikt S, Mountadar M, Soufiane A, Elmidaoui A (2007) Fluoride removal for underground brackish water by adsorption on the natural chitosan and by electrodialysis. Desalination 212:37–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S, Prakash P, SenGupta AK (2010) The donnan membrane principle: opportunities for sustainable engineered processes and materials. Environ Sci Technol 44:1161–1166

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S, Guibal E, Quignard F, SenGupta AK (2012) Polymer-supported metals and metal oxide nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization, and applications. J Nanoparticle Res 14:715

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh G, Kumar B, Sen PK, Majumdar J (1999) Removal of fluoride from spent pot liner leachate using ion exchange. Water Environ Res 71:36–42

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart BH (2004) Infrared spectroscopy: fundamentals and applications. Wiley, Australia, pp 72–152

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sundaram CS, Viswanathan N, Meenakshi S (2008) Defluoridation chemistry of synthetic hydroxyapatite at nano scale: equilibrium and kinetic studies. J Hazard Mater 155:206–215

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sundaram CS, Viswanathan N, Meenakshi S (2009) Fluoride sorption by nanohydroxyapatite/chitin composite. J Hazard Mater 172:147–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang WY, Li RB, Tan JA, Luo KL, Yang LS, Li HR, Li YH (2002) Adsorption and leaching of fluoride in soils of China. Fluoride 35:122–129

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2008) Guidelines for drinking-water quality: third edition, Incorporating the first and second addenda. 3rd edition, Geneva

Download references

Acknowledgments

The second author, A.T., is supported by MHRD, GOI fellowship. Part of the work was supported by the Faculty Initiation Grant received from the corresponding authors Institute. The authors thankfully acknowledge the supports received from these grant and fellowships.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences, Thapar University, Patiala, 147004, India

    G. Tomar

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    A. Thareja & S. Sarkar

Authors
  1. G. Tomar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Thareja
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. Sarkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Sarkar.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 73 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tomar, G., Thareja, A. & Sarkar, S. Enhanced fluoride removal by hydroxyapatite-modified activated alumina. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 12, 2809–2818 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0653-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0653-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation