Production of Ceramic Candle Water Filters Using Saw Dust, Rice Husk As Burnt Out Materials (Published)
Water is a commodity that every family needs on a daily basis, but unfortunately most of the sources of water available to people in the developing nations is nothing to write home about as treated water is not easy to come by. There is no doubt therefore that there is an urgent need for small, affordable water treatment facilities that the people can easily access. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of rate of flow through ceramic candle filters when locally available raw materials such as hardwood sawdust and rice husk are used as burn out materials components in the production of water ceramic candle filters. Three different water candle filters were produced using Ekulu coal deposit clay as the major raw material. With sawdust in ratio of 2:8 with the clay and rice husk in the ration 2: 8 also as the combustible (burnout) materials. Water flow rate were measured for the ceramic candle filters produced by measuring the volume of filtrate. It was observed that the filter that had sawdust as burntout materials yielded a filtrate of 100ml in 2 hours, 900ml in 6 hours and 1,500ml in 12 hours and the candle filter with rice husk yielded a filtrate volume of 90ml in 2 hours, 120ml in 6 hours and 220ml in 12 hours. The low yield of the candle filter with rice husk was due to the inability of the husk to be burnt off at temperature 9000C and below
Keywords: Burnout Material, Ceramic Filter, Clay, Rice Husk, Saw Dust