Preparation of carbon/Al₂O₃/nZVI magnetic nanophase materials produced from drinking water sludge for the removal of As(V) from aqueous solutions

Drinking water sludge (DWS) contains organic carbon and metal ions with the potential to prepare adsorbents. In this research, DWS was separated into two parts by acid leaching, i.e., an acid leaching carbonization sludge (ALCS) and an acid leaching solution. Iron and aluminum were extracted from the acid leaching solution and loaded onto ALCS by sedimentation and liquid-phase reduction to prepare a carbon/Al₂O₃/nZVI magnetic adsorption material (ALCS-Al-Fe). The optimum arsenic removal conditions, adsorption kinetics, and isotherm were determined, and the characteristics of the adsorbent ALCS-Al-Fe were investigated. The results showed that the composite exerted a favorable arsenic removal effect due to the electrostatic adsorption of nanometer zero-valent iron as well as ion exchange and complexation between the OH^- groups on the surface of ALCS-Al-Fe and As(V). The pH change had a slight effect on the adsorption capacity, while the common anions SO₄^2- and SiO₃^2- showed obvious inhibitory effects. Considering that alkalinity is beneficial to arsenic ion desorption, NaOH was used in desorbing to conduct 6 cycles of regeneration experiments, and the final removal rate could still reach 90.5%. Therefore, the concept of green development of preparing magnetic adsorbents by using whole component of DWS is significant to the exploitation of sludge recycling.