Abstract

REMOVAL OF FLUORIDE FROM GROUND WATER BY THERMALLY ACTIVATED NEEM (AZADIRACTICA INDICA) AND PEEPAL (FICUS RELIGIOSA) LEAVES CARBON ADSORBENTS.

Neeraj Gautam and Rishi Kumar Singh*

ABSTRACT

The present work deals with fluoride removal from ground water by thermally activated neem (Azadirachta Indica) leaves carbon (ANC) and thermally activated peepal (Ficus Religiosa) leaves carbon (APC) adsorbents. In this study, neem leaves carbon and peepal leaves carbon prepared by heating the leaves at 400 ◦C in electric furnace was found to be useful for the removal of fluoride. The adsorbents of 0.4 mm sizes of neem and peepal leaves carbon was prepared by standard sieve. Batch experiments done to see the fluoride removal properties from ground water of 2 ppm to study the influence of pH, adsorbent dose and contact time on adsorption efficiency. The optimum pH was found to be 6 for both adsorbents. The optimum dose was found to be 1.0 g/100ml for ANC (activated neem leaves) and 1.0 g/100 ml for APC (activated peepal leaves). The optimum time was found to be one hour for both the adsorbent. Removal efficiency of studied adsorbents is found ANC > APC/g dose. This study suggests that the ANC is more effective adsorbent for removal of fluoride from drinking water. There is no adverse change in the physiochemical properties of treated water. It is evident that fluoride removal reached a maximum of 50% and 39% by ANC and APC respectively at pH 6.0. initially it was observed that the percent fluoride removal increase as the pH increase from 2.0 to 6.0. therefore, solution pH was maintained at 6.0 for further studies. It is found that the removal of fluoride ions increases with increase in contact time, but after some time, it gradually approaches a constant value, denoting attainment of equilibrium. Further increase in contact time does not increase Uptake due to deposition of fluoride ions on the available adsorption sites on adsorbent material. All optimized conditions were applied for removal of fluoride from groundwater samples.

Keywords: Neem, Peepal, Flouride, Dose of adsorbents, Contact time etc.