PhD Thesis: Designing and fabrication of household biofilter for fluoride contaminated ground water

Description of Activity

An investigation was done to check the quality of groundwater of Virudhunagar district (Aruppukottai, Sivakasi and Virudhunagar) of Tamil Nadu, India. The survey showed out of 91 villages, 3 villages in Aruppukottai block, 4 villages in Virudhunagar block and 5 villages in Sivakasi block consume water with fluoride concentration above 1.5 mg/L which is above the maximum permissible limit as recommended by WHO. The various lignocellulosic biosorbents (61 substrates) were screened for the adsorption of fluoride. Among the 61 substrates, the organic compost collected from Kodaikanal was chosen for defluoridation study. The physicochemical properties of the organic compost proved that it is suitable for defluoridation process.

The laboratory experiments resulted with the particle size 250 µm and adsorbent dosage 1.0 g/50 mL showed maximum fluoride removal capacity (100%) at 50 min with no interference of co-ions at neutral pH. The organic compost obeyed to Langmuir, Freundlich, Lagergren first order and Pseudo second order. The highest fluoride ion recovery from the organic compost was observed at 0.1 N HCl. The adsorption columns were operated with different flow rates (25, 50, 75 and 100 mL/min), bed height (1, 2, 3 and 4 cm) and adsorbate concentration (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mg/L) until no further fluoride removal was observed. Characterization of the carbonized organic compost was done (SEM, EDAX, FT-IR, DSC/TG, XRD, XPS and BET) to understand the mechanism of the process involved.

Based on the observation, a household biofilter was developed to treat the fluoride contaminated groundwater collected from Sivagnanapuram, Virudhunagar district. The biofilter operated well and 100% removal of fluoride was achieved. Thus, the household biofilter developed can be used for drinking purpose as it is highly efficient to remove the contaminant is economical and eco-friendly.

Period	16 Apr 2015
Examinee	A. Angelin & S. Kavitha
Examination held at	Karunya University
Degree of Recognition	International