Effects of Silicic Acid on Leaching Behavior of Arsenic from Spent Magnesium-Based Adsorbents Containing Arsenite
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Interesting manuscript on the effects of silicic acid on leaching behavior of arsenic from spent magnesium-based adsorbents containing arsenite. Accordingly, the present study investigated two spent Mg-based adsorbents containing As by performing shaking tests with silicic acid. Then, the effects of silicic acid on the environmental stability of each adsorbent were evaluated and, finally, a more environmentally friendly adsorbent is recommended by comparing the environmental stability data of spent Mg-based and Ca-based adsorbents. The document is well written and interesting and my minor comments about this paper are:
- review the use of keywords which should be different from those already reported in the title;
- if possible, include a more accurate statistical analysis of the data presented using parametric or non-parametric methods;
- the quantity of references reported seems to be too modest. It is advisable to extend the bibliographic research, including articles, reviews, etc.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1
We would like to express our sincere thanks for your insightful comments.
Taking into account your comments, we have improved our manuscript accordingly.
Please check the PDF file we uploaded.
Sincerely, Hajime Sugita
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In this manuscript, authors studied the effects of silicic acid on spent Mg-based adsorbents and magnesium hydroxide containing arsenite. As results, the arsenic leaching ratios of both spent adsorbents decreased slightly with an increase in the initial silicic acid concentration of the eluent. Besides, good leaching ratios were found with the matrixes, which is a promising field for futures papers. Im my opinion, the manuscript should present statistical analysis for all experiments developed aiming to show confiability of data.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2
We would like to express our sincere thanks for your insightful comments.
Taking into account your comments, we have improved our manuscript accordingly.
Please check the PDF file we uploaded.
Sincerely, Hajime Sugita
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This article studied the use of adsorbent for mitigating arsenic contamination. The writing is clear. Readers in the fields of waste reuse and water treatment will be interested in this work.
Authors can further discuss the potential life-cycle improvement for the proposed method. One relevant references about resource efficiency and life-cycle assessment is recommended: Engineering interface between bioenergy recovery and biogas desulfurization: Sustainability interplays of biochar application
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 3
We would like to express our sincere thanks for your insightful comments.
Taking into account your comments, we have improved our manuscript accordingly.
Please check the PDF file we uploaded.
Sincerely, Hajime Sugita
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
