Ecological Engineering, Volume 37, Issue 11, November 2011
Improvement of drinking water quality by using plant biomass through household biosand filter – A decentralized approach
Shams Ali Baig, Qaisar Mahmood , , Bahadar Nawab, Mustafa Nawaz Shafqat, Arshid Pervez
Sustainable Water Sanitation Health and Development Program, Department of Environmental Science, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan
The removal of microbial and physico-chemical contaminants was investigated using an innovative biosand filter (BSF) containing three combinations of coniferous pinus bark biomass (CPBB), i.e. 1 cm (treatment 2), 2.5 cm (treatment 3) and 5 cm (treatment 4). The efficiency of BSF was assessed in batch mode experiments and the comparative reductions of contaminants were monitored over the control treatment (1) at temperature range of 1–15 °C for 90 days. Standard methods were used to analyze 9 operating, physico-chemicals and biological water quality parameters of pre-and post-water filtration samples after 15 days interval.
The results showed mean 93 ± 2% and 95 ± 3% reductions of Eischerichia coli and total coliforms, respectively, for BSF containing the highest depth of CPBB (5 cm), whereby 100% removal was observed during the treatment time T30 to T45 days. The general affinity sequence for E. coli, total coliforms and turbidity removal in the four treatments was: BSF with 5 cm CPBB > BSF with 2.5 cm CPBB > BSF with 1 cm CPBB > Control. It was concluded that modified BSF with additional adsorbent of locally available CPBB is a very good decentralized treatment option for drinking water.
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