Salinity reduction in well water using zeolite

Abstract

Saline water intrusion is one of the global issues, which increases the demand for freshwater around the coastal region. The saline content in drinking water makes so many health impacts on human beings. There are many new technologies available for reducing salinity such as desalination, membrane technologies, reverse osmosis, etc. But these are expensive too. There is a need for cost-effective treatment which is suitable for domestic purpose in coastal regions. In this paper, a new technique is introduced which reduces the saline content in groundwater by installing this barrier device in wells of coastal regions. A non-woven Geo textile along with natural zeolite is used as a filter cum adsorption unit. Tests results show a decrease in electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids with an increase in filter thickness for all selected salt concentrations irrespective of the adsorbent materials used viz., natural zeolite and thermally activated natural zeolite. This indicated a reduction in chloride ions as the only salt added to the water samples tested was commercial salt. Authors suggest that a thermally activated zeolite filter could be a possible cost-effective, efficient and easy solution for increasing saline water intrusion issues in coastal drinking water wells.