Removal of antimony(V) and antimony(III) from drinking water by coagulation–flocculation–sedimentation (CFS)

Antimony occurs widely in the environment as a result of natural processes and human activity. Although antimony is similar to arsenic in chemical properties and toxicity, and a pollutant of priority interest to the USEPA and the EU, its environmental behaviors, control techniques, and even solution chemistry, are yet barely touched. In this study, antimony removal from drinking water with coagulation–flocculation–sedimentation (CFS) is comprehensively investigated with respect to the dependence of both Sb(III) and Sb(V) removal on the initial contaminant-loading level, coagulant type and dosage, pH and interfering ions. The optimum pH for Sb(V) removal with ferric chloride (FC) was observed at pH 4.5–5.5, and continuously reduced with further pH increase. Over a broad pH range from 4.0 to 10.0, effective Sb(III) removal with FC was obtained. Contrary to the effective Sb removal with FC, the degree of both Sb(III) and Sb(V) removal with aluminum sulfate (AS) was very low, indicating the impracticability of AS application for antimony removal. The presence of phosphate and humic acid (HA) markedly impeded Sb(V) removal, while exhibited insignificant effect on Sb(III) removal. The effects of coagulant type, Sb species and pH are more pronounced than the effects of coagulant dose and initial pollutant concentration. After preliminarily excluding the possibility of precipitation and the predominance of coprecipitation, the adsorption mechanism is used to rationalize and simulate Sb/FC coagulation with good result by incorporating diffuse-layer model (DLM).