Application of Air Micronanobubbles to Reduce Arsenic Present in an Effluent Generated at the Laboratory Level

Abstract

The objective of this research was applying air Micronanobubbles to reduce Arsenic present in an effluent generated at the laboratory level. In this research, an effluent with arsenic metal was used from a mixture of minerals with the presence of arsenopyrite with 19% As content. This mixture of minerals was stirred in a hot alkaline leaching medium at a temperature of 80 °C, with Na2S (1.5 M) and NaOH (1.0 M), then it was diluted with distilled water to obtain a volume of 100 L with a concentration of 150 ppm As. This effluent was treated with the air micronanobubble (MNB) generator equipment patented by Dr. Jhonny Valverde Flores. The variables of the pressure and the insufflation time of air as MNB in the effluent with content of the arsenic element were analyzed. A 40% decrease of As was obtained in the effluent. The results indicate that the use of MNB is promising in terms of the reduction of arsenic in solutions with concentrations of the same.