Design of Filtration column with sand and gravel bed and activated carbon bed for the purification of Cooum River water in Maduravoyal

Abstract

The drastic development of world towards the fulfilment of human needs has put nature in jeopardy.
Pollution is dominating the nature and the environment and increasing at an appalling rate which
ultimately leading to the destruction of nature and affecting the basic amities like water. Human being
has misused the privilege given by nature in disturbing the ecosystem and leading towards the tainting of
the basic life support of any living things like air and water. Hence it is the demand of time and
responsibility of researchers to introduce a handy and effective solution to purify water for drinking; in
this direction, Column filtration serves the cause effectively. Much work has been done in developing
filtration process for treatment of sewage water and wastewater from industries and even municipal
water. But the filtering media is extortionate, and sometimes it is even critical to choose the filter media
as it induces the growth of microorganisms in filter media.This work represents a simple design of
filtration column with low-cost filter media made up of sand, stone gravel and activated carbon made by
Prosopis Juliflora bark. The water sample was taken from Cooum River in maduravoyal, Chennai
Tamilnadu. The water discharged from the column is disinfected using chlorine. Complete
characterization of filtered water is done to estimate the chemical and physical attributes like colour, pH,
turbidity, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Total suspended particles, Biological Oxygen Demand, electrical
conductivity and different chemical components such as fluoride, sulphate, nitrates, chlorides etc. The
physical and chemical traits of treated water were found to be within the permissible range.