Determination and optimization of Silver Nanoparticle Impregnated Porous Ceramic water filter for Point of Use Water Treatment
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Date
2020-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Clean water is a necessity for healthy human beings so is its provision and access. The porous ceramic water filtration pot has been greatly improving the most contaminated tap water for drinking water in developing countries. This research was carried out to determine the efficiency of the AgNP impregnated porous ceramic water filter pots in improving water from bacterial coliforms. The study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of AgNP impregnated ceramic water filter pots in reducing the E. coli in contaminated water. The effect of firing temperature and volume porosity (P) of a pot-type ceramic water filter on the filtration and E. coli removal efficiency is presented.
The raw materials used to make the porous ceramic pot are clay soil, sawdust and silver nitrate. Clay soil and sawdust were grinded and sieved with 1mm (clay soil), 0.2mm, 0.4mm, 0.6mm and 0.8mm (Sawdust) opening mesh size and then mixed with water and molded in a pot shape and fired at 900 °C, 1000 °C and 1100 °C. The porosity of the ceramic water filters was varied by changing the screen size of sawdust and percentage of sawdust added in the red clay and measured by the absorption test method using Archimedes’ principle and the E. coli were tested using the membrane filtration procedure.
The porosity of the filters was found to be directly proportional to the screen size and percentage of the sawdust and slightly inversely proportional to firing temperatures. The filtration rate of water increased with the increase in the porosity of the AgNP impregnated ceramic water filters. Ceramic water filters designs (clay to sawdust mass ratio of 85:15, 90:10, and 95:5) fired at a temperature of 900 °C, 1000 °C, and 1100 °C for eight hours had total E. coli removal efficiency of 85.6 to 99.999% respectively.
Changing in the filter’s design or raw materials and the firing temperature will affect the performance of the produced ceramic water filters pots. The results of this study suggest that the mean flow rate for a properly functioning filter (8.1% by mass sawdust and screen size in between 400μm and 600μm) fired at a temperature of 900 °C is 1.652 L/hr. This flow rate is more than the average liters per day for adults as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). This filter also removed more than 99.96% of E. coli.
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Keywords
E. coli, silver nanoparticle (AgNP), clay soil, sawdust