Abstract: In order to solve the problem of high contents of iron and manganese in groundwater, the adsorption method has been widely used due to its advantages of large capacity, small energy consumption, low pollution, fast removal efficiency, and recycled usage. We introduce the principle and effectiveness of adsorption using manganese sand, zeolite, volcano rock, biomass, activated carbon and silicon carbon adsorbents, and expound the modification result and influence factors of some adsorbents. Also we point out the improvements and research directions of the adsorbents manganese sand can be modified to weaken the influence of pH and other factors on the adsorption; the research focus of zeolite and volcanic rock remains on the modification; the adsorption effect of biomass in the polluted area should be emphasized; silicon carbon adsorbents can be used together with other adsorbents.

Key words: groundwater, iron removal, manganese removal, adsorption, research progress