Harmfulness of fluorine−bearing groundwater and its current situation and progress of treatment technology

This paper is the result of hydrogeological survey engineering.

Objective Fluorine contaminated groundwater is considered a major public health hazard worldwide. According to statistics, over 200 million people worldwide are at risk of fluorosis, and at least 28 countries have experienced fluorosis incidents caused by drinking high fluoride water. High fluoride groundwater is mainly distributed in underdeveloped areas with drought and water scarcity, and there is a general lack of alternative drinking water sources, making the problem of endemic fluorosis difficult to effectively solve for a long time. Therefore, developing economically feasible fluoride removal technologies has become the key to solving the problem of high fluoride groundwater.

Methods Based on the results of literature research and the current global pollution status of fluorinated groundwater, This article summarized and analyzed the research and application cases of fluorinated groundwater both domestically and internationally, taking into account various factors such as research depth, theoretical and application feasibility, removal efficiency, and renewability comprehensively.

Results This article systematically introduced the causes and distribution of fluorinated groundwater worldwide, summarized the advantages and disadvantages of existing mainstream fluorinated groundwater treatment technologies, fluoride removal mechanisms and application progress, and analyzed and prospected the existing problems and future development trends.

Conclusions Each technology had its own processing advantages and certain limitations, and when selecting and applying specific technologies, it was necessary to comprehensively consider the water quality and target requirements of fluorine contaminated groundwater. At the same time, there were also problems in the current research and development process of groundwater fluoride removal technology, such as lack of targeted service objectives, poor comprehensive treatment efficiency, and significant deviation between the application of adsorption capacity and theoretical values. The coupling application of multiple treatment processes could better leverage the advantages of different treatment technologies and achieved the effect of complementing each other's strengths, which was receiving increasing attention from people. In addition, the joint removal of multiple pollutants and the design and development of new adsorption materials with manually adjustable structures are also important development directions in the future.