A review of technologies for the removal of sulfate from drinking water

Because of the current water crisis worldwide, it is of great importance to find alternative sources of drinking water, such as sulfur water. This review analyses laboratory, pilot and industrial-scale technologies available for sulfate removal from water produced for human consumption, from naturally occurring sulfur water and that resulting from human activities. Most of them exceed 90% removal efficiencies. However, the concentrations treated in each study were different; some technologies evaluate concentrations below recommended limits (250 mg L⁻¹), while others evaluate much higher concentrations but require previous treatments. The technologies with higher energy requirements such as reverse osmosis and ion exchange have better removal efficiencies but require larger initial investments and have higher operational costs. Biological treatments, on the other hand, with lower energy and material requirements, are less expensive but require long retention times and depend on the season of the year and/or environmental conditions. Lastly, adsorption removal technologies fall in the middle, especially for energy requirements and operational costs and retention times. This review shows that although there are a variety of sulfate removal technologies suitable for use, there is still room for a novel methodology that removes sulfates from a wider range of concentrations more economically, more effectively and in less time than what is currently available.