Performance of Aluminum Sulfate and Limestone as an Added Supplement for River Water Filter

Authors

  • Irish Joyce M. De La Vida
  • Mariane Nicole S. Punzalan
  • Rozel Denisse Alyssa Raqueño

Keywords:

Aluminum Sulfate, Limestone, Water Filter, pH Level, Turbidity, Settleable Solids

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Pollution is one of the problems that the government is trying to solve to ensure the cleanliness of the environment. According to the article Pollution in Cavite Philippines (2018), The inaccessibility of water in Cavite is 29.41%. Limestone acts as a base that alters the pH of acidic liquids. Aluminum sulfate is widely used to purify water because it is said to lessen the turbidity of water (Farhaoui, Hasnaoui, Derraz, 2016). This study aims to know if Alum and Limestone are active substances in filtering river water.

METHODS

The main procedures done in the study were the acquisition of alum, limestone, and carbonized filter, making of the alum and limestone-based filter, collection of river water and filtration of the sample water. Twelve liters of river water were collected from Dandan Naic River. The parameters used in the study are pH Level, Turbidity, and Settleable Solids. The samples were tested under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Trece Martires, Cavite.

RESULTS

The results showed that the computed F value, 0.588618, for pH level, Turbidity, and Settleable Solids are less than the alpha of 0.5. With this, the null hypotheses state that there is no significant difference between the pH level, turbidity and settleable solids of river water and the filtered sample water. Thus, the null hypotheses are accepted. The average of the turbidity of the filtered water is 41.33 is higher than the turbidity of the raw river water. With the average pH level of 4, the pH level of the filtered water is lower than the pH level of the fresh river water, 6.6. The average of the settleable solids for the filtered water, 0.43, is higher than the result of the raw river water, 0.1.

DISCUSSIONS

In comparison to a related study by Affam (2013) entitled Operational Performance of Vertical Upflow Roughing Filter for Pre-Treatment of Leachate Using Limestone Filter Media. The result of the study showed that the pH level of the sample water increased after the filtration in a limestone-based filter, which shows that the two studies show opposite results, due to the difference in the quantity of the limestone and study did not use aluminum sulfate.

Published

2019-01-18