Impact of source water quality on total organic carbon and trihalomethane removal efficiency in a water treatment plant: A case study of Upper Awash, Ethiopia.

This study addresses the limited understanding of factors affecting the efficiency of water treatment plants in reducing trihalomethane (THM) formation through total organic carbon (TOC) removal, highlighting significant challenges in improving treatment effectiveness. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of water quality on the efficiency of water treatment plants to remove TOC and reduce THM formation. Linear regression and correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between water quality parameters and THM concentrations. The results showed that there was a negative relationship between turbidity, metals, and TOC concentration with TOC removal efficiency. Positive correlations were found between parameters and the formation of THMs in water. Of these parameters, water temperature was observed to have relatively less influence on THM formation. It was observed that seasonal variations in water quality affect the efficiency of TOC removal and THM content in treated water. THM levels in chlorinated water were found to be within the permissible range of the World Health Organization's drinking water quality guidelines. However, it is still important to maintain continuous monitoring and take measures to reduce THMs. The model demonstrated a strong correlation (R2 = 0.906) between predicted and measured THM values.

Development of a Household Water Defluoridation Process Using Aluminium Hydroxide Based Adsorbent.

In this study, the removal of fluoride from water using aluminium hydroxide based adsorbent has been investigated in continuous operation. The effect of fluoride influent concentration, feed flowrate, and adsorbent bed height onto the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were examined. The fixed-bed adsorption system was found to perform better with lower influent fluoride concentration, lower flowrate, and higher bed depth. Thermodynamic evaluation using the bed depth service time model indicated that the fluoride adsorption capacity was 25.8 mg F-/g of adsorbent, which is high compared to commercially available activated alumina (1.8 to 1.9 mg/g). Kinetic studies showed that the rate of adsorption in continuous studies was in the range of 6.12×10(-3) to 39.3×10(-3) L/mg.h under different operating conditions. The household defluoridation unit (HDU) was tested at an up-flow mode and it was determined that the HDU packed with 0.9 kg of adsorbent with 28.3 cm of bed depth resulted in a specific safe water yield of 823.79 L. Regeneration of the exhaust media using 1% NaOH and 0.1 M HCl showed that the adsorbent could be reused. The estimated running cost of the unit was 2.0 U.S. dollar/m3 of treated water, with the potential to minimize further. Hence, it was concluded that the proposed method is simple and exhibits superior performance for the treatment of fluoride-contaminated water with the potential for household application.

Water defluoridation by aluminium oxide-manganese oxide composite material.

In this study, aluminium oxide-manganese oxide (AOMO) composite material was synthesized, characterized, and tested for fluoride removal in batch experiments. AOMO was prepared from manganese(II) chloride and aluminium hydroxide. The surface area of AOMO was found to be 30.7m2/g and its specific density was determined as 2.78 g/cm3. Detailed investigation of the adsorbent by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and ion chromatography (for sulphate only) showed that it is composed of Al, Mn, SO4, and Na as major components and Fe, Si, Ca, and Mg as minor components. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to study the thermal behaviour of AOMO. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the adsorbent is poorly crystalline. The point of zero charge was determined as 9.54. Batch experiments (by varying the proportion of MnO, adsorbent dose, contact time, initial F concentration, and raw water pH) showed that fluoride removal efficiency ofAOMO varied significantly with percentage of MnO with an optimum value of about I11% of manganese oxide in the adsorbent. The optimum dose of the adsorbent was 4 g/L which corresponds to the equilibrium adsorption capacity of 4.8 mg F-/g. Both the removal efficiency and adsorption capacity showed an increasing trend with an increase in initial fluoride concentration of the water. The pH for optimum fluoride removal was found to be in the range between 5 and 7. The adsorption data were analysed using the Freundlich, Langmuir, and Dubinirn-Radushkevich models. The minimum adsorption capacity obtained from the non-linear Freundlich isotherm model was 4.94 mg F-/g and the maximum capacity from the Langmuir isotherm method was 19.2mg F-/g. The experimental data of fluoride adsorption on AOMO fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm model. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption is well described by a non-linear pseudo-second-order reaction model with an average rate constant of 3.1 x 10(-2) g/min mg. It is concluded that AOMO is a highly promising adsorbent for the removal of excess fluoride from drinking water.