Sustainable Fresh Water Productions and Supplies in Rural Areas Rakib Mustafa, Dr. Eylem Asmatulu Department of Mechanical Engineering Wichita State University

Overview Introduction Previous Works Experimental Methodology Materials Methods Conclusion

Introduction Finding Sources of clean water is becoming a challenge for many part of the world. This scarcity of clean drinking water is really notable in the developing countries

Introduction (Cont’d) Reason Behind the Water Contamination Industrial Revolution: Inclusion of chemical wastes in water such as Lead (Pb) Cadmium (Cd) Arsenic (As) Organic wastes (Acid Dye) Inorganic wastes Agricultural pesticides Nitrite and Sulfide chemicals Salt Ignorance of Human initiatives

Previous Works Desalination One of the most efficient way to remove salt and some other minerals Multiple filtration process

Previous Works (Cont’d) Desalination (Cont’d) Different pressure driven processes are used to separate highly dense particles from solvent (water). Reverse osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF) are the leading pressure driven membrane processes. Forward osmosis (FO) is a relatively new commercial desalting process in which a salt concentration gradient is the driving force through a synthetic membrane. Very Expensive process.

Previous Works (Cont’d) Carbonization The process of converting organic material into carbon and carbon embedded residue among other byproducts by means of pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is the thermochemical decomposition of organic precursor material into carbon rich compounds at higher temperature under inert atmospheric conditions Materials are pyrolyzed at a higher temperature (600-900°C) in an inert atmosphere like Argon or Nitrogen Activated Carbon A form of carbon processed to have small, low-volume pores that increase the surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions Due to its high porosity, the surface area is really higher. This higher surface area provides the scope of using them to remove colored and organic impurities from the solution. 2 ways to activate carbon Physical Activation Chemical Activation

Previous Works (Cont’d) Physical Activation Carbonized material is exposed to oxidizing atmospheres (oxygen or steam) at temperatures above 250 °C. Chemical Activation After the carbonization,  the raw material is impregnated with certain chemicals. Typically an acid, strong base or salt, i.e. Phosphoric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Zinc Chloride, Calcium Chloride. Chemical activation is preferred over physical activation due to the lower temperatures and shorter time needed for activating material.

Previous Works (Cont’d) Gutzeit et al. used algal-bacterial biomass for the waste water treatment. They used Flocculation process to clean the water. Fig: Symbiotic interactions in a system with algal-bacterial biomass Fig: Sedimentation of the sludge in water with time

Previous Works (Cont’d) Qian et al used the activated carbon to analyze the surface area . They used cattle manure compost as raw materials. Pyrolysis is done at a temperature 400- 900°C. Activation is done using ZnCl2. The Composition of the pyrolyzed material and ZnCl2 is varied to see the difference in surface area.

Properties of activated carbon synthesized Previous Works (Cont’d) Giraldo et al. used coffee waste to prepare activated carbon. For chemical activation, they used two different reagents, Potassium Hydroxide and Zinc Chloride at two different ratio. Finally, solutions were washed with hot distilled water to adjust the pH. Properties of activated carbon synthesized

Previous Works (Cont’d) Zanella et al. used CaCl2 on commercial Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) for the Nitrate removal. GAC was considered as solid sorbent. The total process can be summed up by the following figure In this method, Nitrate removal was increased with the increase of time and concentration of solid sorbent.

Experimental Methodology Materials Used Algae Cotton Paper Date seeds Olive Seeds Briquette were prepared using Algae, Cotton and Paper. Molasses was in the process of Briquette preparation as a binder.

Experimental Methodology (Cont’d) Briquette Preparation (Algae, Cotton, Paper) For Cotton and Paper, at first those were chopped and sieved into 1-2 mm dimension. Algae powder, sieved cotton and papers were then mixed with binder (Molasses). To make the mixture uniform, a vortex was used for 5 minutes at 3000 rpm. To produce the Briquette, a die punch-mold was used with the diameter of 1.27 cm.

Experimental Methodology (Cont’d) Briquette Preparation (Algae, Cotton, Paper) A Hydraulic Press was used to make the Briquette. Briquettes were prepared at 3, 4 and 5 ton/cm2 pressure Briquette Prepared from Algae Fig: Hydraulic Press

Experimental Methodology (Cont’d) Preparation of Date and Olive Seeds Dates and Olive seeds were at first crushed, ground and sieved to 1-2 mm dimension. They were dried in an oven at 110°C for 1 hour. Sieved Olive Seeds Oven for Drying Sieved Date Seeds

Experimental Methodology (Cont’d) Carbonization Briquettes and sieved materials were placed inside a furnace and heat it steadily at a ramp of 10°C/min. Argon gas was used to make the furnace environment inert. Materials were pyrolyzed at 750°C and kept at that temperature for 1 hour and then slowly cooled. Fig: Furnace for Carbonization

Experimental Methodology (Cont’d) Chemical Activation After the carbonization, carbon residues were washed with distilled water. They were dried at 110°C for 24 hours in an oven. Finally a solution of 25% solution ZnCl2 or CaCl2 oven was impregnated in the carbon with the ratio of 2:1 and 3:1 The resulting slurry was dried at 105°C Resulting activated carbons were washed again to adjust the pH to normal. Activated carbon from the process

Conclusion Higher Surface area of the carbon is expected in this process. Higher surface ensures higher absorption of chemical particles. Eventually it will be helpful to treat lake water even the industrial waste water. Process is cheaper than graphene based membrane or desalination.

References Gutzeit, D Lorch, A Weber, Bioflocculent algal–bacterial biomass improves low-cost wastewater treatment, 2005, 52 (12) 9-18 J Yan, T Wei, B Shao, Z Fan, W Qian, M Zhang, F Wei- Preparation of activated carbons from cattlemanure compost by zinc chloride activation, biortech.2005.12.023 L Giraldo, JC Moreno-Piraján- Synthesis of activated carbon mesoporous from coffee waste and its application in adsorption zinc and mercury ions from aqueous solution, Journal of Chemistry, 2012  Zanella, O.; Tessaro, I. C.  and  Feris, L. A.-Study of CaCl2 as an agent that modifies the surface of activated carbon used in sorption/treatment cycles for nitrate removal. Braz. J. Chem. Eng.  2014, vol.31, n.1, pp.205-210. ISSN 0104- 6632.   https://www.amtaorg.com/Water_Desalination_Processes.html