Performance Evaluation of Metakaolin as Low Cost Adsorbent for Manganese Removal in Anoxic Groundwater

Abstract

The recent climate condition and pollution problem related to surface water have led to water scarcity in Malaysia. Huge amount of groundwater has been identified as viable source for drinking water. This paper was aimed to investigate groundwater’s quality at specific location and metakaolin’s potential in the groundwater treatment in the removal of manganese. Groundwater purging was determined to be sufficient at 120 minutes where all three parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity) were stabilized. The groundwater studied is classified as both anoxic and reductive due the low dissolved oxygen value. It also can be categorized as brackish due to high value of conductivity and total dissolved solid. Manganese content in groundwater was determined as higher than of that permissible limit for raw water and drinking water which makes it unsuitable for them not suitable for consumption and cleaning purpose. Average manganese concentration in samples was 444.0 ppb where the concentrations of manganese ranged from 229.4 ppb to 760.3 ppb. Manganese developed is not that a strong positive correlation against iron concentration, total dissolved solids and conductivity; whereas has a moderate negative correlation against dissolved oxygen. The capability adsorption of manganese by metakaolin was assessed via batch method which indicated optimum dosage and contact time was 14g that removed average 30.2% and contact time optimum at 120 minutes which removed 33.2% manganese from the sample.