DEVELOPMENT OF CERAMIC POT WATER FILTERS FOR HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENT USING LOCAL MATERIALS

Abstract

The need for low-cost point-of-use water treatment technologies for drinking water supply in local communities are receiving high consideration mostly in developing countries like Nigeria. The application of ceramic water filters for household water treatment using local materials forms one of the technologies. This research work was carried out determine the suitability of some selected clay samples across Ekiti by conducting extensive laboratory works, performance without colloidal silver. This was based on the flow rate, E. Coli and Coliform removal efficiency. The ceramic filters were manufactured using clay to sawdust variation of 90%:10% to10%:90% and its suitability were determined by conducting Atterberg Limit test, Elemental composition analysis and mineralogical structural analysis. Significantly, most of the ceramic pot filters produced achieve high filtration rate but E.Coli and Coliform removal efficiency could not totally meet the World Health Organization Standard. The ceramic filters produced from Igabra Odo Ekiti clay sample removed up to 95% of E. coli and 70% of Coliform. The results obtained also showed that using thesame mix ratio variation of clay to sawdust for all selected clay samples was not suitable for the production of ceramic water filter. The results obtained on the mineralogical structural analysis showed the thermal stability of the selected samples, which was a critical guide during firing process. This study concluded that locally available materials were suitable for the production of ceramic water filter with appropriate variation of clay to combustible materials such as sawdust.