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Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Removal of Arsenic Using a Cationic Polymer Gel Impregnated with Iron Hydroxide
Published on: June 28, 2019
Simultaneous removal of nitrate and arsenic from drinking water sources utilizing a fixed-bed bioreactor system
Giridhar Upadhyaya1, Jeff Jackson, Tara M Clancy
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Abstract:
A novel bioreactor system, consisting of two biologically active carbon (BAC) reactors in series, was developed for the simultaneous removal of nitrate and arsenic from a synthetic groundwater supplemented with acetic acid. A mixed biofilm microbial community that developed on the BAC was capable of utilizing dissolved oxygen, nitrate, arsenate, and sulfate as the electron acceptors. Nitrate was removed from a concentration of approximately 50 mg/L in the influent to below the detection limit of 0.2 mg/L. Biologically generated sulfides resulted in the precipitation of the iron sulfides mackinawite and greigite, which concomitantly removed arsenic from an influent concentration of approximately 200 ug/L to below 20 ug/L through arsenic sulfide precipitation and surface precipitation on iron sulfides. This study showed for the first time that arsenic and nitrate can be simultaneously removed from drinking water sources utilizing a bioreactor system.
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