PaliShahjee, B.J.Godboley, A.M.Sudame
Fluoride contamination in drinking water due to natural and anthropogenic activities has been recognized as one of the major issue imposing a serious threat to human health. Among several treatment technologies applied for fluoride removal, adsorption process has been explored widely and offers satisfactory results, so objective of this study was to investigate or check efficiency of low cost adsorbent (Bleaching Powder) for the removal of excess fluoride from aqueous solution. The influence of various operational parameters viz. effect of adsorbent dose, pH, initial concentration and contact time were studied by a series of batch adsorption experiments. 7.3gm/100ml (0.7mg/l is the new limit of fluoride according to EPA & HSS) was calculated as optimum dose of adsorbent. It was noticed that adsorbent is showing a good efficiency between 6-10 pH. In contact time variation it was noticed that it show rapid adsorption of Fluoride from 4 to 7 hr, thereafter, the adsorption rate gradually reaches equilibrium in 8hr-9hr. These conditions make it very suitable for use in drinking water treatment. From these studies, it may be concluded that bleaching powder is an efficient and economical adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions.