Abstract
Ceramic water filtration is the process that makes use of a porous ceramic (fired clay) medium to filter microbes or other contaminants from water. Ceramic water filtration has been greatly improved upon such that it takes care of most microbial contamination in water. However, the ceramic filter is not known to treat chemical contaminants in water. Therefore this project was aimed at developing a ceramic filter that could treat certain chemical contamination in water at the household level. Porous ceramic bodies were formulated and constituted from various materials such as kaolin, laterite, bonechar and charcoal. Bone char was added as a defluoridation agent while the charcoal doubled as the porecreating combustible material and as an Activated Carbon media in the ceramic body for the adsorption of metals from water. The formulated ceramic bodies were shaped into filters (pot) using the slip casting technique and fired bisque (850?C - 900?C). The developed filter samples were subjected to physical properties tests, while analysis on the microbial and physio-chemical parameters of the filter-treated water samples were compared vis-a-vis the raw water samples. The results indicate that the developed filters were effective in the treatment of chemical contaminants detected in the raw water samples; with significant reductions in fluoride, lead, and sulphate levels amongst others. The resulting filter samples also showed viability in physical handling strength and flow rate; while the availability of the raw materials and the processing technique used, makes a good economic case for the production of the developed filters.
Highlights
A filter is defined as a device, instrument or material, which removes something from whatever passes through it
Ceramic filters were popularly used for centralized water treatment but in recent times they are being manufactured for point of use applications (National Academy of Sciences, 2008)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) encourages its use as household water treatment systems (HWTS) for effective treatment of drinking water. These porous ceramic water filters which vary widely in design, effectiveness and cost, are treated with a silver solution which acts as a microbicide to inactivate bacteria and this has contributed to the increased performance of ceramic water filters
Summary
A filter is defined as a device, instrument or material, which removes something from whatever passes through it. Ceramic water filtration as defined by Brown, Sobsey and Proum (2007), is the process that makes use of a porous ceramic (fired clay) medium to filter microbes or other contaminants from water. The World Health Organisation (WHO) encourages its use as household water treatment systems (HWTS) for effective treatment of drinking water. These porous ceramic water filters which vary widely in design, effectiveness and cost, are treated with a silver solution which acts as a microbicide to inactivate bacteria and this has contributed to the increased performance of ceramic water filters. The ceramic filters have been shown to be limited and incapable of treating viral and chemical contamination in water
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