Tobias Buckmaster, “Experimental Investigation of Arsenic Filtration Performance Using Granular Media” 
Mentor: Krishna Pillai, Mechanical Engineering 
Poster #23

Arsenic contamination in drinking water has been a global health concern for quite some time, especially for developing countries across the world. While this remains a global problem, Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, are areas of the world are seemingly more affected by this than any other as concentration values of 100-400ppb having been recorded. In this study, we investigate the performance of a granular media filtration system in removing arsenic from water. Our experimental setup consisted of testing different types of granular media while under changing parameters such as flow rate and bed height of the filtration system and analyzing the effect of these variables on the filter’s efficiency of arsenic removal. The results of this study demonstrate that the filtration system is effective in removing arsenic from water, with removal efficiencies exceeding 95%. The experimental data was used to validate a volume averaging model for arsenic filtration, which accurately predicted the arsenic removal efficiency of the filtration system. The findings in this study can contribute to the development of more effective arsenic filtration methods and help mitigate the health risks associated with arsenic contamination in drinking water.