Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2014 Aug 1;488-489:539-46. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.074. Epub 2013 Dec 17.
Millions of people in rural South Asia are exposed to high levels of arsenic through groundwater used for drinking. Many deployed arsenic remediation technologies quickly fail because they are not maintained, repaired, accepted, or affordable. It is therefore imperative that arsenic remediation technologies be evaluated for their ability to perform within a sustainable and scalable business model that addresses these challenges. We present field trial results of a 600 L Electro-Chemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) reactor operating over 3.5 months in West Bengal. These results are evaluated through the lens of a community scale micro-utility business model as a potential sustainable and scalable safe water solution for rural communities in South Asia. We demonstrate ECAR's ability to consistently reduce arsenic concentrations of ~266 μg/L to <5 μg/L in real groundwater, simultaneously meeting the international standards for iron and aluminum in drinking water. ECAR operating costs (amortized capital plus consumables) are estimated as $0.83-$1.04/m(3) under realistic conditions. We discuss the implications of these results against the constraints of a sustainable and scalable business model to argue that ECAR is a promising technology to help provide a clean water solution in arsenic-affected areas of South Asia.
数以百万计的南亚农村人口通过用于饮用的地下水接触到高浓度的砷。许多部署的砷修复技术由于缺乏维护、维修、接受或负担得起而迅速失效。因此，评估砷修复技术在可持续和可扩展的商业模式中的性能至关重要，这种商业模式可以解决这些挑战。我们展示了在孟加拉国运行 3.5 个月的 600L 电化学砷修复（ECAR）反应器的现场试验结果。通过社区规模微型公用事业商业模式的视角来评估这些结果，这是南亚农村社区可持续和可扩展的安全水解决方案的潜在选择。我们证明了 ECAR 能够将真实地下水中约 266μg/L 的砷浓度持续降低至<5μg/L，同时满足饮用水中铁和铝的国际标准。在现实条件下，ECAR 的运营成本（摊销资本加消耗品）估计为每立方米 0.83-1.04 美元。我们讨论了这些结果对可持续和可扩展商业模式的限制的影响，以证明 ECAR 是一种有前途的技术，可以帮助在南亚受砷影响的地区提供清洁水解决方案。
