Biochar for the removal of pathogens from waste water

Abstract

Waste water contains various pollutants and pathogens which is harmful to all the living organisms. This waste water without any treatment if released directly to water bodies or soil causes pollution of water and soils. Various agroindustry by-products viz., sawdust, corn cob, wheat husk, bagasse, rice bran, etc. are generated in huge amount which are disposed directly to the landfills or incinerated which causes pollution. The agroindustry by-products can be used to prepare biochar. In this work, wheat husk was used to prepare biochar. This wheat husk based biochar was used for the study of removal of pathogens from waste water. The biochar was also used to check if it can be used for treatment of water by study of total suspended and dissolved solids. The reduction of pathogens in waste water samples A and B using wheat husk based biochar observed was 90 and 80% respectively when compared to untreated waste water samples. Also, no colonies of E. coli were observed after treating the waste water samples A and B with wheat husk based biochar. The reduction in total suspended and dissolved solids observed was 97.7 and 76.3% respectively when compared to the untreated water sample. Wheat husk based biochar can be used for the removal of pathogens such as E. coli from waste water. The biochar can also be sued for the treatment of waste water. The use of biochar for the removal of pathogens, solids and other pollutants from waste water will be very cheap and eco-friendly.