Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 28, Issue 1, 2022; Page No.(165-171)

A STUDY ON THE MODIFICATION OF BIO-SAND FILTER WITH ASHES

Neelu Das, Shashikant Singh, Dipankar Sutradhar, Alok Saikia and Hemanta Brahma

Abstract

This study investigates the viable applications of two different waste materials namely areca nut husk and water hyacinth stem in the form of ash which were used as adsorbent material to modify the bio-sand filter focusing on sustainable development. The effectiveness of the filter was determined by testing for total dissolved solids, pH, the presence of heavy metals (As, Cd and Pb) and microbiological analysis in the raw and purified water. As was reduced to 69% and 76%, Cd to 51.5% and 69% and Pb to 45.9% and 57.8% in ANA and WHA purified water respectively. The microbiological analysis reveals that the filters greatly improved the bacteriological quality of water by recording a removal efficiency of 69.5% and 89.5% in purified water samples. Obtained results shows that the wastes which were considered as a curse to the ecosystem can be turned out to be wealth for Civil Engineering applications.