Abstract
A significant contribution to increasing water supply comes from ground water and thereby meets the ever increasing demands for almost 90% of the Indian population. Problems are being faced due to the presence of excess fluoride, arsenic and nitrate in groundwater. It is also observed that low levels of fluoride in ground water can help prevent dental cavities, at the same time, higher levels of fluoride can induce dental fluorosis & skeletal fluorosis. Therefore, the fluoride level in ground water needs to be monitored and strictly controlled. Fluoride levels in drinking water should not be more than 1.5 mg/l, as recommended by the WHO and the Bureau of Indian Standards. The ideal fluoride limit for drinking and cooking is 1 mg/l, while 1.5 mg/l is acceptable if there is no other source available. Therefore, the present study analysis the water samples taken from various bore holes (provided with the locations of water sample using a Global Positioning System (GPS)) for all possible parameters like hardness, alkalinity, pH, TDS, EC, chloride, sulphate and fluoride followed by the removal of fluoride contamination in ground water samples using adsorptive filtration technique with the help of a novel, low cost natural adsorbent (activated charcoal obtained from carica papaya leaves). This work aims to determine and suggest a low cost material (Activated carbon obtained from carica papaya leaves) as an effective natural adsorbent for the defluoridation of ground water using the natural adsorbents in experimental testing. In addition to this, a mobile app for providing the related information and a separate Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping are also done. From the adsorption study, a reduction of about 84% fluoride was achieved. The obtained results were compared with the previously reported results. It is found that the prepared activated charcoal from papaya leaves is highly efficient than previously reported methods. Therefore, for the suppression of fluoride content in ground water samples, an eco-friendly reduction method using papaya leaf charcoal is suggested.
Published Version
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