SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 9: A nano technique will now help people get rid of arsenic in groundwater.
A four-member researchers’ team of the Environment Science Engineering Department of IIT ISM under Dr S R Samadder has developed an adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from groundwater through a coating of nano manganese on calcinated laterite soil.
The team completed the research in two years (2018-19) of study and experiment. Associate professor Roshan Prabhakar and two M Tech students Somaparna and Md Ali of the environmental engineering department were other members of the team.
This research technique of IIT ISM has major significance as it is cheaper than other systems being used for purifying arsenic so far.
“Nano based adsorption system is gaining popularity among researchers for removal of arsenic ions. But it is costly. At the same time, in our research, we utilized the cheap and readily available laterite soil as a base material for nano-coating,” pointed out Dr Samadder.
According to Dr Samadder, for treating 1000 litres of water, merely 0.70 kg Laterite nano manganese is required. The filter process also seems to be a water saviour as, on the consumption of 1 litre of water for synthesis, nearly 220 litres of water can be treated.
This research is being billed as a major relief as the population in several regions in Jharkhand has been badly affected by arsenic water. As per an agency’s report, 73 hamlets in Jharkhand are affected by arsenic concentration in groundwater.
“Unfortunately, most of the arsenic-affected population belongs to rural areas and they do not have access to safe drinking water,” said Dr Sammader. He further added that IIT ISM has developed an adsorption based scalable treatment system for the resource-deprived community living in the rural hinterland.
Arsenic has been identified as a class -I human carcinogen. The World Health Organization (WHO) set the permissible limit to 10 micrograms per litre in drinking water. But people in some regions drink more than the permissible limit.
Dr Sammader said laterite soil as a base material not only provides a synergism for the removal of arsenic but also provides a way to use nanomaterial for adsorption purposes.
He said sustainability studies confirmed that the developed adsorbent cause no harm to the environment. Eco-scale value for the method of synthesis was found as 86%. Generally, the eco-scale value greater than 75% is considered a green process.
