Ceramic water filtration is the process that
makes use of a porous ceramic (fired clay) medium to filter microbes or other
contaminants from water. Ceramic water filtration has been greatly improved
upon such that it takes care of most microbial contamination in water. However,
the ceramic filter is not known to treat chemical contaminants in water.
Therefore this project was aimed at developing a ceramic filter that could
treat certain chemical contamination in water at the household level. Porous ceramic
bodies were formulated and constituted from various materials such as kaolin,
laterite, bonechar and charcoal. Bone char was added as a defluoridation agent
while the charcoal doubled as the pore-creating combustible material and as an
Activated Carbon media in the ceramic body for the adsorption of metals from
water. The formulated ceramic bodies were shaped into filters (pot) using the
slip casting technique and fired bisque (850˚C - 900˚C). The developed filter
samples were subjected to physical properties tests, while analysis on the
microbial and physio-chemical parameters of the filter-treated water samples
were compared vis-à-vis the raw water samples. The results indicate that the
developed filters were effective in the treatment of chemical contaminants
detected in the raw water samples; with significant reductions in fluoride,
lead, and sulphate levels amongst others. The resulting filter samples also
showed viability in physical handling strength and flow rate; while the
availability of the raw materials and the processing technique used, makes a
good economic case for the production of the developed filters.
Article by Ebele
Erhuanga,et al,from The Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
Full access: http://mrw.so/3ltyLt
Image by lanlangcorp,from Flickr-cc. |
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