Comparative Analysis of Filtration Using Corn Cob, Bone Char and Wood Chippings
Adie D.B, S.Lukman, Saulawa B.S, Yahaya I.

Abstract
Water from two rivers and a borehole in Zaria, Nigeria were subjected to filtration without any pre-treatment in a model laboratory filter. Laboratory analysis carried out on the materials used showed that the sand and the medium size aggregate have an effective size and uniformity coefficient of 0.18 mm and 2.5 mm, and 2.17 and 1.76 respectively. While activated charcoal, activated bone char and the activated corn cob has effective sizes and uniformity coefficients of 3.33mm, 2.3mm and 2.2mm, and 1.97, 3.09 and 4.09 respectively. The chemical analysis of the filtrate water quality showed that there was an increase in pH in the range of 7.01 to 7.90 in all the activated carbons with the highest value accounted for by activated bone char. In terms of hardness removal, activated charcoal gave a better filtrate quality (10.4% removal). The activated bone char however, increased the hardness of each of the raw samples due to the presence of traces of calcium ion in it. Also activated corn cob had a very high tendency of reducing the acidity of the samples compared to the activated charcoal and activated bone char. While in the case of chloride, activated bone char gave a better removal (29%) compared to the activated charcoal (11.2%) and the activated corn cob (12.3%). In the case of alkalinity, the activated bone char and activated corn cob showed a gradual removal in the concentration than the activated charcoal in all the samples. The activated corn cob was more efficient in turbidity and ammonia nitrogen removal. It can therefore be concluded that each of the activated carbons has a different rate of removal of some of the contaminants in the raw water samples. While the activated corn cob is good in the removal of some of the physical properties, the activated born char plays important role in the removal of some of the chemical properties: chloride ion, alkalinity and the activated charcoal was suitable for the reduction of ammonia nitrogen concentration. Hence it is recommended that a mix of the three sources of activated carbons be used for a desirable result in filtration operations

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