Parametric study of adsorption column for arsenic removal on the basis of numerical simulations

Arsenic infectivity is a burning issue that causes skin infections, cancers and few hazardous impacts. This manuscript presents a computational fluid dynamic model of adsorption column using a commercially renowned CFD software FLUENT®14.2. A with 2-D geometry. The iron oxide (FeOH) was employed as an adsorbent with active reaction surface sites. Arsenic-contaminated water was lumped into single species called arsenious acid (H3AsO3) and allowed to react with FeOH particles. The turbulence parameters were modeled using the two-equations k−ϵ model. The governing equations for mass, momentum, energy and species transport have been solved for adsorption column. The significant parameters, for instance, adsorbent bed height (5, 10 and 15 cm), bed porosity (93%, 73%, 58% and 40%), initial concentration of arsenious acid (20–100%) and feed mass flow rate of contaminated water (0.01–0.1 Kg/s) have been investigated. The performance of adsorption column has been evaluated based on arsenic removal efficiency and pressure drop. Present results suggested that 10 cm adsorbent bed height, 58% bed porosity, 100% arsenious acid initial concentration with water and 0.01 Kg/sec contaminated water feed rate have shown remarkable performance in terms of more than 90% removal efficiency and less than 40 Pa pressure drop.