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tigated.
Water hardness has a significant impact on groundwater, especially in arid and semi-arid
regions, leading to wasted investments in borehole drilling and worsening accessibility to potable
water. In many developing countries, groundwater is the main source of drinking water. In this
study, low cost and readily available cashew nut shells activated carbons (CNSAC) were used to
remove hardness from groundwater in a column setting. The recommended design parameters for
the packed-bed column were as follows: area (A) of 265.0 cm2 and diameter (d) of 18.4 cm, at a flow
rate (Q) of 75.0 cm3 min–1. For the field hard water at a flow rate of 2.0 mL min–1, the recommended
empty bed contact time was 70.7 min whereas the breakthrough time was about 430.0 min. Also for
field hard water, the results showed that competing ions in the groundwater lowered the materials
adsorption capacity. Results from this study indicated that CNSAC may be used to adequately
remove groundwater hardness. Using these results, a filter was designed. The designed water hardness
filter, which will be scaled up for point-of-use applications, may provide the much-needed
solution to many people in most developing countries where similar field conditions prevail. |
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