Performances of Zeolite, Coconut Shell, and Zeolite+Coconut Shell-Based Water Cartridges to Minimize Contaminants of Drinking Water

Abstract

Performances of zeolite, coconut shell, and zeolite+coconut shell-based water cartridges to minimize contaminants of drinking waters were conducted in the present study. The zeolite stones and coconut shell charcoal were powdered to be ≥ 60 meshes. The powders were packed into a cartridge to provide zeolite, coconut shell, and zeolite+coconut shell (1:2) cartridges, respectively. Well waters allowed to flow through each cartridge for a month. Thereafter, each water filtrate was harvested and analyzed numbers of parameters from four variables included in the quality table of drinking water. The total coliform found in each 100 mL of the well water equaled to 460 MPN (most possible number) while the fecal coli equaled to 150. When the well water flowed through the developing cartridges, the MPN content varied which depended on the cartridge materials qualitative compositions. Total coliform remained in water filtrates of the well waters flowed through the cartridges made of zeolite, coconut charcoal, and their mixture (1:2 by volume) were 38, 240, and 96 MPN, respectively. These developed cartridges, therefore, could remove these total coliform from the well waters by 92, 48, and 79 %, respectively. Overall, the performance of the developed cartridge made of zeolite was highest among those cartridges.