TITLE

 Determination of most favorable conditions for an optimum water treatment.

OBJECTIVE

 Study the conventional water treatment process and compare the data obtained at various
stages of the experiment.

INTRODUCTION

Raw water is natural water found in the environment and has not been treated, nor have any minerals,
ions, particles or living organisms removed. Raw water includes rainwater, ground water, water from
infiltration wells, and water from bodies like lakes and rivers. Water quality is the physical, chemical
and biological characteristics of water. These characteristics can vary greatly depending on
environmental conditions. Pollution can also effect raw water content. Due to the possible
contaminants, raw water must be treated before it is allowed for human consumption or industrial
use. The objective of any water treatment process is to improve water quality. There are many
parameters used to determine the quality of water, such as, pH value, turbidity, color, taste, odor
etc.by determining these parameters the quality of water can be assessed.

THEORY

Raw water or wastewater must be treated to remove turbidity, color and bacteria. Colloidal particles
are in the size range between dissolved substance and suspended particles. The particles are too small
to be removed by sedimentation or by normal filtration processes. Colloidal particles exhibit the
Tyndall effect; that is, when light passes through liquid containing colloidal particles, the light is
reflected by the particles. The degree to which colloidal suspension reflects light at 90º angle to the
entrance beam is measured by turbidity. The unit of measure is a Turbidity Unit (TU) or
Nephlometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). It is determined by reference to a chemical mixture that
produces a reproducible refraction of light. Turbidities in excess of 5 TU are easily detectable in a
glass of water and are usually objectionable for aesthetic reasons. For a given particle size, the higher
the turbidity, the higher the concentration of colloidal particles.

Color is a useful term that is used to describe a solution state. But it is difficult to distinguish
‘dissolved color’ and ‘colloidal color’. Some color is caused by colloidal iron or manganese
complexes. Although, the most common cause of color is from complex organic compounds that
originate from the decomposition of organic matter. Colour is measured by the ability of the solution
to absorb light. Color particles can be removed by the methods discussed for dissolved or colloidal,
depending upon the state of the colour.
RESULTS

Turbidity vs. pH
30
28
Turbidity(NTU)

25
20 21

15
10 13.2 11.3

5 3.22
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8

pH

Figure 1-Variation of Turbidity with pH

1.4

1.2 1.19
Chlorine decay monitoring
1
Clorine (mg/l)

0.94 0.92
0.8

0.6
Distilled water
0.4 Raw water
0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time (min)
Figure 2-Variation of Chlorine decay with time

140
135
120 122
109 colour
100
UV 254-10cm
80
Turbidity(NTU)
60
40 39.1
20 1-Raw water

0 0.242 0.214 2-Distilled water

0 1 2 3

Figure 3-Variation of Turbidity colour and UV254-10cm in raw and distilled water samples
DISCUSSION

By considering the raw water samples which was used for test. Sample were tested for turbidity, UV
absorbance, colour and pH. The values were 135, 0.242, 122 (Pt/Co) and 6.82 respectively.
International and Sri Lanka standards of drinking water is 0.1 NTU and 3 Pt/Co. So there was a
significant discrepancy between the sample and standards. Sediment raw water sample also already
prepared and kept. Then the above mentioned parameters for this sample were checked. Values were
39.1, 0.214, 109 Pt/Co, and 7.02 respectively. After sedimentation all the parameters were slightly
changed with respect to before. Water quality was become well after sedimentation.

Then FeCl3 was added as a coagulant to the samples which maintain different pH values and mix
using jar test and allowed to settle for some time. While doing this the optimum pH value for
coagulation and whole water treatment was determined. After that those samples were filtered
through a 0.45µm CA filter and tested colour, turbidity and UV absorbance of each sample.

Turbidity is called sometimes as cloudiness of water. Due to suspended particles and dissolved
coloured material are the reason for this cloudiness. In this experiment the lowest value obtained was
6.4 NTU and optimum pH value according to it was 5. Lowest UV absorbance value obtained was
0.046 and it also related to the pH value 5. And lowest colour is 4 and it was also under pH 5.
Comparing all these values the optimum PH value was taken as 5 as the turbidity take a significant
part when choosing the optimum PH value than the other parameters.

When monitoring the chlorine decay of this distilled water sample, with optimum pH and coagulant,
shows that in raw water chlorine decay is higher is higher than distilled water. This might me
happened due to presence of lot of microorganisms in raw water than treated water & distilled water.

CONCLUSION
As conclusion, this experiment was successfully done and it is because the objective of this
experiment which was to conduct various experiments on the parameters that effect water
quality and select the most favorable conditions for an optimum water treatment. In this experiment
certain parameters were obtained values which include turbidity, colour, pH and UV254.
Moreover, we were able to compare the data at various stages of the experiment.
REFERENCES

 Mr. Brian Oram, P. (2017). Chlorination of Drinking Water. [online] Water-research.net.

Available at: http://www.water-research.net/index.php/water-treatment/tools/chlorination-
of-water [Accessed 16 Jul. 2017].
 Michigan, S. o., 2017. Department of Environmental Quality. [Online]
Available at: http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module03/Demand.htm
[Accessed 25 07 2017].

 A.Thomas, 1998. Water and Sewage Works. s.l.:McGraw Hill Companies Inc.
 Michigan, S. o., 2016. Department of Environmental Quality. [Online] Available at:
http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module03/Demand.htm [Accessed 25 07 2017].