Performance of Rambutan Seed Extracts as Iron and Manganese Removal in Drinking Groundwater well in Tanah Merah, Kelantan

Abstract

Groundwater is a major source of drinking water supply espeacially in Kelantan due to shortage of clean surface water. However, groundwater quality is found to be high in hardness, salinity, and concentration of iron, manganese, ammonium and flouride especially at rural area in Kelantan. Therefore, groundwater should be treated before it can be used for domestic purposes. Currently, water treatment used chamicals for heavy metals removal although chemicals were known to be hazardous for human consumption. Thus, plant based material was proposed to give more environmental friendly approach for drinking water treatment especially groundwater. The objective of this study is to determine the performance of extracted rambutan seed in removal of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) from groundwater. Groundwater sample were collected from seleced wells in Tanah Merah district, Kelantan, Malaysia. Iron and manganese contents of groundwater samples were measured before and after the jar test in the laboratory by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). All water samples were tested with different concentration of rambutan seed cruded extracts. The experiments were carried out with coagulant dosage of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 mg/L with the interval of 1.0 mg/L. The results show that, Nephelium lappaceum seed can remove up to 91.38% of Fe in groundwater sample by using optimal dosage of l/L. The seed also able to remove up to 90.91% Mn in groundwater samples using the optimal dosage 5mg/L. The high removal rate for both iron and manganese reflected that rambutan seed has a potential to replace chemicals coagulant in water treatment. Hopefully with this finding, people will have access to reasonable price, clean and safe drinking water and the goverment can also save a few thousand ringgit for treatment expenses.