The Effects of Charred Cattle Bones on the Treatment of Fluoride in Water using Ceramic Filters

Abstract

Filtration is a process wherein a medium (the filter) removes or strains something from whatever is passed through it. Ceramic water filters make use of micro pores in a fired ceramic medium to filter out microbes and other contaminants from water by size elimination. The traditional ceramic water filters remove particles and solids from water by trapping them as the water takes its natural flow through the pores of the ceramic. While the ceramic filter is known to basically treat water by excluding whatever is larger in size than the pores of the ceramic medium; other variants of the filter have been developed to enhance water purification by coating the filter elements with silver solution. However, in some locations around the world, excessive levels of mineral contamination in ground waters have raised issues as regards the potability of such waters. In this light, the research sought to study the effect of using cattle bones as a constituent material in developing a ceramic filter which can treat excess fluoride in water, amongst others. The methodology applied involved, the collection of cattle bones charred to temperatures of about 500-600^oC in open air. The bones were crushed and milled with clay materials and combustible material into clay slip which was used to shape the ceramic filters. The filter samples were fired to bisque ware at a temperature of between 850-900^oC. Physio-chemical analysis was carried out on the filter-treated water samples and compared vis-à-vis the raw water samples for certain parameters including fluoride. The results indicated that the developed filters were effective in the reduction of fluoride concentration levels as detected in the raw water samples; with greater reductions with increasing bone char ratio in the filter compositions. There were also indications of inclusions of traces of calcium ions in the filtered water samples.