Rice Husk and Sugarcane Baggase Based Activated Carbon for Iron and Manganese Removal

Iron and manganese are commonly present in groundwater supplies used by many water systems. The presence of iron and manganese in the drinking water is not harmful to human bodies. However, higher concentration causes discoloration, staining, turbidity and bad taste problems. It also form iron oxide or manganese dioxide accumulations in pipes. In the present work, low cost methods have been evolved for the removal of iron and manganese from ground water using Rice Husk based Activated Carbon (RHAC) and Sugarcane Baggase based Activated Carbon (SBAC). Exhaustive experiments have been conducted in the Laboratory on sediment columns with variable depths of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 cm. Four graded types of sediment collected from the banks of Rivers Brahmani, Koel, Sankha and Budhabalanga were studied for proper removal of suspended solids by maintaining sufficient infiltration rates. It has been observed that the infiltration rate is maintained for the soil column of 50 cm without having any impact of the suspended solids. The Iron and manganese concentrations are found to be removed 100% after passing through the filter material in both the cases. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.