EVALUATION OF ARSENIC REMOVAL PLANTS BASED ON ADSORPTION AND ION EXCHANGE IN BUXAR, BIHAR

Abstract

There are various schemes of treating water around the globe to suffice potable water needs. Arsenic contamination in potable water has a long history to follow. The death of Napoleon Bonaparte was contradicted as he was supposed to have died due to arsenic contamination. In modern world arsenic contamination in potable water has been measure affect to human health in arsenic prevalence zones. To mitigate the arsenic problem there has been many methods of arsenic removal from ground water source being researched and implemented. Installation and design of such systems are mostly based on affordability, target communities, technical performance and reliability. While evaluating an Arsenic removal system these factors are always compared for different technologies. LCA is a robust tool to evaluate environmental impacts generated by a product system. In recent times, sustainability of a product or process is always considered with the environmental impacts associated with it. Thus, LCA can be a tool to provide environmental indicators in form of midpoint and endpoint impacts for evaluating an arsenic treatment technology too.This study evaluates two arsenic removal plants in rural Bihar on the basis of technical and socio-economic factors and also finds the life cycle impact assessment of these processes.The results from both the methodology are compared against each other and identify the best among these. Two of the plants in Simri, block Buxar, Bihar were compared using Open LCA software for inventory analysis and Life cycle impact assessment.