Ion exchanges process for calcium, magnesium and total hardness from ground water with natural zeolite

Abstract

Presence of hardness ions in the municipal drinking water is the major health concern. So to minimize the hardness of drinking water up to the environmental protection authority (EPA) quality standard expensive treatments are available. This directly affects the rural and low community society. The aim of this research work is to remove the calcium, magnesium and total hardness from the municipal drinking water supply with natural zeolite. All the experiments on the research work were carried out in batch method. The experimental result illustrates that at 2M NaCl and 60 °C activation temperature is suitable to achieved maximum 80.2% calcium, 84.8% magnesium and 81.0% total hardness at optimum condition pH 6.9, dose 50 g/L, particle size 1 mm, treatment time 30 min and experimental temperature 25 °C. Regeneration of zeolite at 3M NaCl and 90 °C is appropriate to achieve 80.0% total hardness, 79.9% Ca ions, 85.6% Mg ion at pH 6.9, size 1 mm and regeneration time 15 min. The X-ray diffraction, scanning electron micrograph and Fourier infrared transfer analysis confirms that zeolite has participated on hardness removal. Overall zeolite is highly efficient for hardness removal and can be employed in the drinking water treatment plant.