International Virtual Conference on

Civil Engineering, Architecture and Sustainable Infrastructure

BBDU, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, 23rd – 24th, September 2021

Eradication of Iron from Ground Water Using Affordable

Filter Technique
1
S. Vanitha, 2 Dr. N. K. Rajan
1
Research Scholar, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India
2
Professor and Head, M.N.M. Jain Engineering College, Chennai, India

Abstract
Water purity is one of the deciding factors for good health to sustain in the globe. Intentional
as well as non-malicious human activities which include groundwater abstraction, subsurface mining,
vegetation removal, chemical explosions and infrastructure loading are the sources for contamination
of groundwater. This paper deals the low-cost filter technique. Quality of groundwater has enhanced
by removal of total iron concentration from 1.03mg/lit to 0.4mg/lit which permissible limit of iron
concentration is 0.3mg/lit using low-cost solid phase extractor. Sugar cane bagasse adsorbent and pre-
treated neem powder adsorbent have been selected as low-cost filtering extractor. Sugarcane bagasse
removes 61.16% of iron content with 150 grams adsorbent whereas pre-treated Neem powder
removes 50.48% of iron content with 150 grams of adsorbent.

Keywords: Adsorbents, Ground water, Iron, Neem powder, Sugarcane bagasse

INTRODUCTION

The need of Purified water is absolutely essential for healthy life and it has great impacts on people’s everyday
life, especially in the rural and remote areas where access to safe drinking water is very crucial. Fresh
groundwater is sometimes enriched with dissolved ferrous iron (Fe(II)) that restricts its consumption as potable
water because it forms colloidal red matter (mainly ferric ox hydroxides) under toxic conditions at near neutral
pH (>6) conditions. According to WHO standards, the permissible limit of iron in drinking water is 0.3 mg, L.
However, the dumping of domestic and industrial wastes in the water bodies is responsible for elevated levels of
iron in the water. The continuous consumption of such water with high iron content may lead to various health
problems like Bad odor, unpleasant taste, red color of water and stains on laundry and plumbing fixtures are also
some of the issues related with high iron content in water. Statistics shows that these diseases resulted in 90% of
all deaths of children under five years old in developing countries, due to low immunization of children to
infections. Drinking water is being the biggest issue nowadays in India. Most of the people in the rural areas are
not able enough to use water filters or buy mineral water bottles. To overcome this problem many efforts have
been done due to which cleaning water may become an affordable commodity. Every house hold should be able
to develop its own drinking water purification system; this should be the aim of development of any low cost
water purification technique. A variety of techniques have been adapted for the remediation of iron from
different water sources. This review summarizes the approaches used for the removal of iron content from
ground water using natural adsorbents.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK

MATERIALS USED AND PREPARATION OF ADSORBENT MEDIA

Large number of scientists and environmentalists has investigated the possibility and efficiency of utilization of
the natural adsorbents for heavy metal adsorption in polluted water. Following materials were used in removal
of iron from water discussed below.

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Reagents

The chemicals used were Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), Acetic acid (CH 3COOH), Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2.
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and PH buffer solutions were used to adjust PH value of samples.

Preparation of Sugarcane bagasse adsorbent

Sugarcane bagasse was initially cleansed meticulously to get rid of dusts by washing with pure water, after that
awash in Sodium Hydroxide for 12 hours and for a second time cleansed healthy through doubly distilled Water.
After that it was drenched in Acetic acid for a period of 2–3 hours to take out the effects of Sodium Hydroxide.
It was meticulously cleansed over by means of doubly distilled water and after that filtered. Allowed to well
dried in the Sun for 6 days and roughly powdered before use.

Preparation of Neem powder adsorbent

The scientific name of Neem is Azadirachta indica. Neem leaves are dried under the Sunlight naturally till the
leaves turn to pale yellow and are kept in open air for some time, with the passage of time chlorophyll material
gets degrade and the leaves were crushed and roughly powdered. Neem leaves powder was taken for removal of
toxic element from water. Neem powder was mixed thoroughly with Calcium hydroxide (chuna) 1:10 ratio.
Chemical formula of calcium hydroxide is Ca(OH)2. It is springily soluble in water and forms a solution called
lime water.

Figure 1 Raw SCB Figure 2 SCB soaked in NaOH Figure 3 Pre-treated SCB

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Figure 4 Dry neem leaves Figure 5 Pre-treated Neem

Plain sand

Fine sand is naturally occurring glacial deposits high in silica content and low in soluble calcium, magnesium
and iron compounds are very useful in sedimentation removal. But here the media is used for iron removal from
drinking water. Here for the Experimentation plane sand passing through 600 Micron IS sieve were used after
washing it thoroughly with tap water followed by doubly distilled water (DDW).

Figure 6 Sand used for filtration Figure 7 Washing of sand for removal of impurities

Gravel chips

Gravel filters were found to be very effective for the removal of sediment and heavy metals under all water level
regimes even as the system clogged over time. Despite the sediment particle size distribution being much
smaller than the filter media pore size, sediment and its time associated pollutants were effectively trapped in
the top of the gravel filter.

Figure 8 Gravel chips used for filtration

FILTRATION MODEL DEVELOPMENT

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Here we have manufactured a simple cylindrical filtration bottle as shown in Figure with the following
dimensions

Water collecting cylinder

 Length = 25 cm

 Diameter = 15 cm

Figure 9 Cylinder collecting filtered water

A tap was connected to the bottom cylinder which collects the filtered water that has filtered through the
adsorbents media which is kept in the above the collecting cylinder.

Adsorbents cylinder

 Length = 30 cm

 Diameter = 7.5cm

Figure 10 Sand and gravel in long cylinder

A supporting container was kept in addition to this cylinder for supporting the lengthy adsorbent cylinder with
the help of pebbles. In this adsorbent cylinder a layer of gravel chips, sand, filter paper and the adsorbents
wrapped in a filter cover was placed respectively. A filter paper was kept at the bottom of the adsorbent media

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which was connected with the bottom cylinder to filter the dissolved solids and filter the water. In the proposed
design of the model, the prefabricated water of known iron concentration was passed through the inlet at the top.
Inside the bottle cylinder, different adsorption media of specified thickness were placed with proper gravel
support. Then after filtration, the filtered water was collected through the outlet part in a beaker as show in the
fig.

Figure 11 Model setup

the final concentration was measured in the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS).The rate of filtration was
noted and for each adsorption media, three samples were tested for each adsorbent and average concentration
was considered for analyzing filter effectiveness.

METHODOLOGY

For removal of iron the natural materials had been used in the experiments i.e. Sugarcane bagasse and Neem
powder mixed with chuna (Calcium Hydroxide) has been adopted. The following adsorption media had been
experimented here for removal of iron from collected raw water sample.

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Figure 12 layout of filter media

Sugarcane Bagasse

The pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse, 600 micron sand and gravel chips are taken for filtration process where top
layer is of pre-treated neem Sugarcane bagasse of specific amount of 50 grams, 100 grams, 150 grams is taken
in a filter cover followed by sand and gravel chips at the bottom. Known concentration of raw water sample was
passed through the pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse and filtrate was collected in a beaker then it is filtered through
a Whatman filter paper. The rate of filtration was calculated and final iron concentration was measured.

Figure 13 SCB in Filter media Figure 14 pouring of raw water Figure 15 collecting filtered water
for filtration

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Neem leaves powder mixed with chuna

The pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse, 600 micron sand and gravel chips are taken for filtration process where top
layer is of pre-treated neem leaves powder of specific amount of 50 grams, 100 grams, 150 grams is taken in a
filter cover followed by sand and gravel chips at the bottom. Known concentration of raw water sample was
passed through the pre-treated neem powder and filtrate was collected in a beaker then it is filtered through a
Whatman filter paper. The rate of filtration was calculated and final iron concentration was measured.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Sugarcane bagasse

The results are obtained in removal of iron by using Pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse and the effectiveness in
removing iron are tabled here. The initial iron concentration was 1.03 mg/l and the results are shown in the
following Table 1.

Figure 16 Neem powder in filter Figure 17 Pouring of raw water Figure 18 Collecting filtered
media for filtration water

Table 1 Results of filtration Using Sugarcane bagasse

Sample no Amount of SCB used in Initial concentration in Final concentration in

grams mg/lit mg/lit

1. 50 1.03 0.9

2. 100 1.03 0.65

3. 150 1.03 0.4

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Neem powder mixed with Calcium hydroxide

The results are obtained in removal of iron by using Neem powder mixed with Calcium hydroxide and the
effectiveness in removing iron is tabled here. The initial iron concentration was 1.03mg/l and the results are
shown in the following Table 2.

Table 2 Results of filtration Using Neem powder mixed with Calcium hydroxide

Sample no Amount of Neem powder Initial concentration in Final concentration in

used in grams mg/lit mg/lit

1. 50 1.03 0.98
2. 100 1.03 0.579
3. 150 1.03 0.51

1.2 Initial concentration Final concentration - SCB Final concentration - NEEM

1.03 1.03 1.03
0.98
1 0.9

0.8
Concentration in mg/lit

0.65
0.579
0.6 0.51
0.4
0.4

0.2

0
1 2 3
Amount of SCB used in grams (1 - 50 grams, 2 - 100 grams and 3 - 150
grams)

Figure 19 Iron removal in Pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse vs Neem powder

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100.0
95.1
90.0
80.0 87.4
70.0 66.2
Percentage

60.0
50.0 49.5
40.0 53.1 38.8
30.0
20.0
10.0 SCB NEEM
0.0
1 2 3
Amount of SCB used in grams (1 - 50 grams, 2 - 100 grams and 3 - 150
grams)

Figure 20 Variation of per cent of iron removal using SCB and Neem powder

CONCLUSION

 Adsorption being the simplest and cheapest technique for iron removal, it has several advantages, like
longer filtration runs, shorter ripening time, better filtrate quality. But the only limitation is back wash
water requirement is essential for the filter media to run effectively.

 Sand being the cheapest adsorbing surface is very effective in removal of dissolved iron from drinking
water and the rate of filtration is also very high. The only demerit is subsequent development of
bacterial layer due to rigorous use. Again, back washing is needed time to time.

 Neem leaves powder mixed with chuna which was roughly crushed with hand, the removal is not so
significant. This may be due to lager particle size of material being used. Smaller the size of particle
larger will be the specific surface and better will be the removal.

 Pre-treated Sugarcane bagasse proved to be good result in removal of iron compare to pre-treated neem
leaves powder.

REFERENCES

[1] Nitasha Khatri, 2017. Strategies for removal of iron from water, Journal of water process
Engineering, Volume 19, Issue 8, 291-394.
[2] Pandhare & Dawande, 2010. Synthesis of low-cost adsorbent from azadirachta indica (neem) leaf
powder, Archieves of applied science research, Volume 2, Issue 5, 456-461.
[3] Ankit a. jinturkar, 2017. Removal of iron from aqueous solution using neem leaf powder as an
adsorbent, International journal of innovative research in science, engineering and technology, Volume
6, Issue 5, 8948-8952.
[4] Balaji. R, 2014. Removal of iron from drinking, ground water by using agricultural adsorbents,
International Journal of Engineering & Innovative Technology, Volume 3, Issue 12, 43-46.

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ISBN: 979-8-5412-2027-8
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[5] Deepika B.V & Pradeep Kumar K J, 2016. Iron removal from drinking water using low costs
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[6] Indah. S , 2018. Studies on desorption and regeneration of iron removal from aqueous solution,
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[7] Thomas AUDU, 2009. Biosorption of Heavy Metal Ions from Aqueous Solutions Using a Biomaterial
Leonardo journal of sciences, Volume 23, Issue 14, 58-65.
[8] ZU Halim, 2019. Removal and kinetics adsorption of Fe (II) ions in ground water using sugarcane
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[9] Khalid Z. Ekwakeel, 2015. Removal of ferrous and manganese from water by activated carbon
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48.

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