Iron and manganese mobilisation due to dam height increase for a tropical reservoir in South East Asia.

The aim of this research was the analysis of the effect of a dam height raise on the water quality of a tropical reservoir used for drinking water purposes in South East Asia. Analyses of iron, manganese, pH and ammonia were performed over a 5-year period from daily water sampling at the reservoir. In addition, high-frequency monitoring data of nitrate, ammonium, pH and blue-green algae were obtained using a monitoring probe. The results showed that due to the raising of the reservoir water level, previously oxic sediments became submerged, triggering an increase in iron and manganese in particular due to the establishment of reducing conditions. Manganese concentrations with values up to 4 mg L-1 are now exceeding guideline values. The analysis strongly indicated that both iron and manganese have a seasonal component with higher iron and manganese concentrations during the wet season. Over a three-year period afterwards, concentrations did not go back to pre-raise levels. The change in water quality was accompanied by a change in pH from previous values of around 5 to pH values of around 6.5. Geochemical simulations confirmed the theory that the increasing concentrations of iron and manganese are due to the dissolution of MnO2 and ferric oxyhydroxides oxidising organic matter in the process. This study showed that changes in reservoir water levels with the establishment of reducing conditions can have long-term effects on the water quality of a reservoir.

Irreversible sorption of Pb(II) from aqueous solution on breadfruit peel to mitigate environmental pollution problems.

Development of efficient and environmentally friendly methods to remove toxic pollutants from aqueous systems is a requirement to mitigate ever increasing environmental pollution problems. In this context, Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit) peel (BP), a waste material, can be used as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) ions from synthetic pollutant solutions. The extent of removal of Pb(II), under optimized conditions in experimental batch experiments, is determined to be 82.0%, which is decreased in highly ionic environments, partly due to competition for a limited number of active adsorption sites, indicating the necessity of optimizing experimental parameters for the most efficient removal. Regression analysis and error function values evaluated for isotherm models associated with different adsorption mechanisms, namely Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Redlich-Peterson and Sips, indicate that the best fitted model is the Sips followed by the Langmuir model with adsorption capacities (qmax) of 78.50 mg g-1 and 85.42 mg g-1, respectively. Thermodynamics arguments support the spontaneous and exothermic behavior of the Pb(II)-BP adsorption system, while adsorption kinetics of the system provides evidence for the applicability of the pseudo second order model with a rate constant of 0.504 g mg-1 min-1.