Study the Fluoride Removal by Batch Mode Adsorption Method Using Laterite Soil

Fluoride contamination in water is a serious problem to human health. Removal of fluoride from drinking water has gained a lot of attention in the research area. The study focused on fluoride removal from water by adsorption process using untreated and treated laterite soil. Laterite soil has been treated with zirconium oxide chloride octahydrate (ZrOCl2·8H2O). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tools were used to characterize the untreated as well as Zr-treated laterite soil. The effect of pH on the removal of fluoride has been investigated through a series of batch experiments. The removal of fluoride was 97.42% and 81.3% for Zr-treated and untreated laterite soil, respectively. The removal efficiency was enhanced with decreasing trends of pH. The optimum value of pH was 5. The adsorption isotherms such as Langmuir and Freundlich has also been studied. Langmuir model was well-fitted with equilibrium data.