Iranian Journal of

Backgrounds and Objectives:Water contamination with arsenic has been recognized as a serious problem and its epidemiological problems to human health have been reported. The objective of this study was to explore the possibility modified wheat straw using sodium bicarbonate for removing arsenic from aqueous solution.
Materials and Methods: Adsorption process was accomplished in a laboratory-scale batch with emphasis on the effect of various parameters such as pH, contact time, arsenic concentration and adsorbent dosage on adsorption efficiency. In order to understand the adsorption process, sorption kinetics and equilibrium isotherms were also determined.
Results: It was found that adsorption of the arsenic was influenced by several parameters such as arsenic initial concentration, adsorbent dosage and solution pH. Maximum absorption efficiency was achieved at pH 7. As expected the amount of arsenic adsorbed on wheat straw incresed as its concentration went up. Among the models tested, namely the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin Radushkevich isotherms, the adsorption equilibrium for arsenic was best described by the Langmuir and Freundlich models. It was also found that adsorption of arsenic by wheat straw followed pseudo second-order kinetics. Mean free energy of adsorption (15.8 kJ mol-1) indicates that adsorption of arsenic by wheat straw might follow a chemisorption mechanism. Desorption studies show that arsenic ions are strongly bounded with the adsorbent and exhibit low desorption.
Conclusion: It is concluded that that adsorption by modified wheat straw is an efficient and reliable method for arsenic removal from liquid solutions.

Background and Objective: Reactive Red 198 is a mono azo dye widely used in the textile industry of Iran. The toxicity of reactive dyes is higher than other dyes and causes disorders such as irritation, cancer and mutation in humans. The overall objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of a Constructed Wetland pilot system with conventional and baffled horizontal subsurface flow to remove Reactive Red 198.
Materials and Methods: In order to remove Reactive Red 198, two cells were constructed in parallel with 2 × 0.6 × 0.5 m. In the conventional and baffled cell, native straw of Phragmites australis was used. In the research process, COD concentration and reactive dye concentration were investigated. The effect of retention time and type of plant on the efficiency were also investigated.
Results: The results showed that the maximum removal efficiency of the Reactive Red dye 198 was obtained at 100 mg/L inlet pollutant concentration and 3.5 days retention time, which was related to the baffled cells. Also, the presence of the baffles in the constructed wetland system increased the removal efficiency. The presence of straw in both cells was directly affected the removal efficiency. The effect of the retention time in the conventional cell was more effective in removal efficiency than the baffled cell. The pollutant inlet concentration was also inversely correlated with the removal efficiency.
Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that the baffled and conventional horizontal subsurface constructed wetland can be used for low concentrations and at low retention time as a well-functioning system in the removal of Reactive Red 198.