Selenium Removal from Sulfate-Containing Groundwater Using Granular Layered Double Hydroxide Materials

Due to recent changes in regulatory discharge limits, selenium removal from electric utility wastewaters is becoming an important issue. In this work, Mg-Al-CO₃ layered double hydroxide (LDH) in granular form was evaluated for treatment of selenium-containing groundwater in small scale column tests. The LDH material showed good capacity for removing selenate from groundwaters that contained very high levels of sulfate and total dissolved solids. Column tests were investigated using the granular LDH to treat groundwater containing trace levels of selenium <2 ppb. Removal of sulfate using chemical pretreatment of the groundwater resulted in about 3× higher selenium loading onto the granular LDH. The structural changes in the media after exhaustion and analysis of the effluent water from the column test were also studied to better understand the species removed by the LDH. These results show that the LDH is a promising sorbent for removing selenium from wastewaters with high levels of sulfate and background species.