Development and Evaluation of a Portable Iron Removal Plant (PIRP) for Drinking Water

Safe and clean drinking water is the prerequisite for survival and has a significant impact on daily life. The existing higher concentrations of iron in groundwater in different regions of Bangladesh, including Sylhet, cause significant health issues for the concerned community. To address this problem, a lab-scale Portable Iron Removal Plant (PIRP) was developed to remove iron from drinking water. It includes downward free-flow aeration, sedimentation, and up-flow filtration using filter media like vit sand (8 cm), fine sand (5 cm), foam (1.2 cm), stone (4 cm), and jhama (2 cm), with a total depth of 20.2 cm. A total of 7 iron-contaminated water samples were collected from 7 different deep tube-wells from Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU) campus. The samples were tested for iron concentration before and after filtration through PIRP. Water Quality Index (WQI) was determined using Weighted Arithmetic (W.A.) method. Iron concentrations of the samples before filtration were 1.61, 5.00, 1.69, 1.88, 1.97, 1.69, and 1.82 mg/L, which reduced to 0.55, 0.58, 0.91, 0.13, 0.67, 0.28 and 0.36 mg/L, respectively after filtering through the PIRP. Maximum iron removal efficiency of the PIRP was 93.09%, with the average efficiency 75%, which is satisfactory in comparison to other studies. The PIRP could be a sustainable alternative with further improvement for its easy operation and maintenance, and utilization of low-cost components (e.g., natural aerations, low-cost filtering agents, etc.).