Remoción de arsénico por floculación y filtración directa del agua subterránea del municipio de San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, Guatemala.

Abstract

Arsenic was detected in groundwater from the “Las Piscinas” well, which supplies urban area in San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, Guatemala. So, design a treatment that could remove it and turns it able to be consumed was necessary. From preliminary evaluations, it was written as a hypothesis that Arsenic is present in suspended form and not dissolved, so it could be removed by a filtration process. As a part of design process, must be considered the limited availability of area and evaluation of flocculation and direct filtration as an option. Pilot sand filter was constructed to simulate the process at laboratory scale. After 13 months of monitoring and experimental assays as jar tests, arsenic was detected in 0.019 mg/L in raw water and 0.005 in treated water at 25 mg/L of aluminum sulfate. Difference between final remotion using sedimentation and only direct filtration process was less than 1%, so, it will dispense with sedimentation and combination of flocculation and direct filtration is effective enough to remove arsenic below permissible limit on 0.010 for drinking water.