Method for treating water containing iron, manganese and arsenic

• US 7,459,086 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2003
• Issued: 12/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support
• Original Assignee: OTV SA SA
• Inventors: Gaid, Abdelkader
• Primary Examiner(s): Savage; Matthew O
• Application Number:
  US10/513,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20050252862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,043 Days
• Field of Search: 210/665, 210/667, 210/673, 210/681, 210/688, 210/722, 210/763, 210/792, 210/912
• US Class Current: 210/667
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 20/0222 Compounds of Mn, Re
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 20/0229 Compounds of Fe
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 20/06 comprising oxides or hydroxides of metals not provided for in group B01J20/04
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2220/42 Materials comprising a mixture of inorganic materials materials coated or impregnated on a carrier B01J20/32
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/64 of iron or manganese
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 210/912 Heavy metal

Abstract

A method for treating water to produce potable water is described herein. The inventive method enables the efficient removal of iron, manganese, and arsenic without the addition of powerful oxidants and without requiring a complex procedure for preparing the filtering material. The described method treats the water by passing the water through at least one bed of filter material, where the filter material comprises an association of manganese dioxide grains and at least one iron-based divided material in the hydroxide, oxide, or metallic state. The association may comprise a mixture of the iron-based divided material and the manganese dioxide grains. Alternatively, the association may comprise a superposition of layers of the iron-based divided material and the manganese dioxide grains.

Claims

1. A method of treatment of waters, in particular to reduce their iron, manganese and arsenic content,

the method comprising passing the waters over at least one bed of filter material comprising an association

of at least one iron-based divided material in the hydroxide state, the iron-based divided material in the form of particles of dimensions 0.3-2 mm;

and

of manganese dioxide grains having an apparent density of the order of 2 and a hardness greater than 6 on Moh'"'"'s scale.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the iron-based divided material used is in the form of grains of ferric hydroxide.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the association of iron-based divided material and manganese dioxide comprises a superposition of layers of iron-based divided material and of manganese dioxide grains.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the superposition of layers comprises an upper layer of iron-based divided material and a lower layer of manganese dioxide grains.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the upper layer of iron-based divided material comprises an upper layer of ferric hydroxide grains.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the upper layer of ferric hydroxide grains has an apparent density of about 1.2-1.5.

7. The method according to claim 6 further comprising regenerating the filter material by washing the filter material using at least of a stream of water and a gaseous fluid.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the gaseous fluid comprises air.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein washing the filter material comprises washing the filter material counter-current to the flow of water to be treated within said filter bed.

10. Method according to claim 7 wherein washing the filter material comprises washing the filter material co-current with the flow of water to be treated within said filter bed.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the regeneration step is performed periodically.

12. The Method according to claim 1 wherein at least one of the iron-based divided material and the manganese dioxide grains are further associated with at least one of sand, anthracite, grains of active carbon, neutralizing material.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein further comprising a preliminary step of crushing and screening of manganese dioxide to obtain a particle size between 0.3-1 mm.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the association of iron-based divided material and manganese dioxide grains comprises by volume between 5%-95% of iron-based divided material and between 95%-5% of manganese dioxide grains.

15. The method according to claim 14 wherein the association of iron-based divided material and manganese dioxide grains comprises by volume about 70% of iron-based divided material and about 30% of manganese dioxide grains.

16. The method according to claim 1 further comprising treating the waters with air upstream of the filtration step to adjust a pH of the said waters.

17. The method according to claim 1 wherein passing the waters over at least one bed of filtering material comprises passing the waters over at least one bed of filtering material at atmospheric pressure.

18. The method according to claim 1 wherein passing the waters over at least one bed of filtering material comprises contacting the waters with at least one bed of filtering material for between 30 seconds 10 minutes.

19. The method of claim 1 including regenerating the filter material by washing the filter material and using at least one of a stream of water and a gaseous fluid.

20. A method of treating waters to produce potable water comprising:

generating a filter comprising an association of manganese dioxide grains and at least one iron-based divided material in the hydroxide state, said manganese dioxide grains having an apparent density on the order of 2 and hardness greater the 6 on Moh'"'"'s scale; and

passing said waters over said filter to generate the potable water.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said iron-based divided material comprises particles having dimension between 0,3 and 2 mm.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the association of iron-based divided material and manganese dioxide is present in the form of a superposition of layers of iron-based divided material and of manganese dioxide grains.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising washing the filter material using at least one of stream of water and gaseous fluid to regenerate the filter material.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein at least one of the iron-based divided material and the manganese dioxide grains are further associated with at least one other of sand, anthracite, grains of active carbon, neutralizing material.

25. The method of claim 20 further comprising treating the water with air upstream of the filtration step to adjust a pH of the waters.

26. The method of claim 20 wherein passing the waters over at least one bed of filtering material comprises contacting the waters with at least one bed of filtering material for between 30 seconds -10 minutes.