Defluoridation of water using biosorbents

Puthenveedu Sadasivan Pillai Harikumar, Chonattu Jaseela, Tharayil Megha

Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Water Quality Division, Kozhikode, India;.

DOI: 10.4236/ns.2012.44035                

Abstract

Contamination of drinking water due to fluoride is a severe health hazard problem. Excess of fluoride (>1.5 mg/l) in drinking water is harmful to human health. Various treatment technologies for removing fluoride from groundwater have been investigated. The present study showed that Vetiveria zizanioides, a herbal plant of Kerala—commonly known as Vetiver is an effective adsorbent for the removal of fluoride from aqueous solution. Phosphoric acid activated Vetiver root showed good adsorption capacity than the fresh powdered Vetiver root. Batch sorptive defluoridation was conducted under variable experimental conditions such as pH, agitation time, dose of adsorbent and particle size. Maximum defluoridation was achieved at pH 6; there is a greater possibility of columbic interaction between fluoride ion and adsorbent surface at this pH. The percentage of fluoride removal in- creases with adsorbent dose and time at a given initial solute concentration. The surface and sorption characteristics were analyzed using SEM techniques. Freundlich as well as Langmuir isotherm were plotted and kinetic constants were determined.

Keywords

Defluoridation; Fluorosis; Batch Adsorption; Vetiver; Phytoremediation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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