In The Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries, manganese is removed by conventional groundwater treatment with aeration and rapid (sand) filtration. Such a treatment process is easy to operate, cost effective and sustainable, because it does not make use of strong oxidants such as O3, Cl2, ClO2 and KMnO4 with the associated risk of by-product formation and over or under dosing. However, application of aeration-filtration is also facing drawbacks, especially the long ripening time of filter media. Due to the long ripening time, water companies have to waste large volumes of treated...