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Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Nanostructures (ICNS4)

12-14 March, 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

Desalination of Water Using Nanoparticles of Husk Ashes in Sand Filter


J. Abedi-Koupaia*, E. Mohri-Esfahania
a

Department of Water Engineering, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology,


84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran, * koupai@cc.iut.ac.ir

Abstract: Desalination technology is a constant source to produce water and to overcome the water shortage in the
dry and desert areas and near-sea countries. Application of new technologies (such as nanotechnology) is a possible
method to improve the performance of sand filter in drip irrigation system. In this paper, Rice husk ash (RHA) and
almond husk ash (AHA) were produced in 2 sizes miliparticles and nanoparticles. Two volumes percent, 10 and 20,
were considered for mixing the particles with sand filter. Saline water (12 dS/m) was entered into the sand filter, placed
in a Plexiglas's container, under two flow rates of 3 and 6 m3/hr. Electrical conductivity (EC), sodium (Na+), Calcium
(Ca2+), carbonate (CO32-), bicarbonate (HCO3-), chloride (Cl-), magnesium(Mg2+), sulphate (SO42-), hardness, sodium
adsorption ratio (SAR), pH were measured in the outlet water. The results showed, after using nanoparticles, we had a
remarkable reduction in chemical parameters in the outlet water. The highest removal (93.6%) was related to AHA
nanoparticles with 10% volume and flow rate of 6 m3/hr. With the flow rate of 3 m3/hr the highest rate of EC reduction,
were obtained 94.2 and 93 percent, using 10 and 20 percent of RHA, respectively.
Keywords: Desalination, Saline water, Rice husk Ash, Almond Husk Ash

Introduction
Water shortage is one of the challenges facing
agriculture, industry, and even human's life in most of the
countries. Also, water saltiness is another factor
exacerbating the water shortage in arid and semi-arid
regions. Desalination technology is a constant source to
produce water and to overcome the water shortage in the
dry and desert areas and near-sea countries, especially in
the drought events. Using this technique has become
widespread from 1940. Desalination is done through
some methods like multi effect distillation (MED),
reverse osmosis(RO), electro dialysis, mechanical vapour
compression (MVC), multi stage flash (MSF), and green
house method. This technology has been used in order to
produce drinking water from saline water having salinity
less than 500 mg/L [8].
Two common water treatment technologies which are
used in the nanotechnology are: absorption and reaction.
The advantages of using nanoparticles for the polluted
water are faster and cheaper expenses than the current
prevalent methods. These advantages are due to better
reaction and high specific surface of nanoparticles.
Rice husk and almond husk are two agricultural byproducts. Rice husk, as one of the most trifling
agricultural products, can act as a good absorbent by
absorbing heavy metals and removal of colour. Lowpriced and reachable active carbon can be produced in
rice husk, almond husk, maize cobs, and sawdust and so
on. Many studies have been carried by the researchers by
using of these kinds of active carbon in order to remove
heavy metals from water. Researchers have reported
different parameters to be effective in the reduction of
heavy metals, like contact time [3,4,7], mixture
temperature [3, 7], active carbon's particle concentration
[3,4,7], types of particles [3,5,7,9], particles size [4,9] and

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initial pH [4,7,9]. The objectives of this research were to


study the influence of factors such as particles' size, type,
amount, and contact time of husk ashes in the sand filter
of drip irrigation system.

Experimental
In order to produce ash from rice husk and almond husk a
furnace was designed [2]. The planned furnace consists of
a steel container with length and wide of 80 cm and
height of 100 cm. In order to supply the necessary oxygen
for burning husks, we installed a steel tour net with a
distance of 30 cm from the base of furnace and two hatch
ways with dimensions of 1020 cm2 at both sides of
furnace. In this device, the fuel of furnace was supplied
from the gas pipeline, and in order to establish an equal
temperature all over the furnace, gas pressure was
distributed equally at all the places of the bottom of
furnace with the aid of 4 gas pilot installed with equal
distances at the bottom of furnace. Rice husk ash (RHA)
was produced at the temperature of 250-300 C after 30
minutes and almond husk ash (AHA) was produced at the
temperature about 700 C after 45 minutes. RHA and
AHA were produced in 2 sizes miliparticles and
nanoparticles. Nanoparticles were produced with the "Los
Angeles Device" and during 1.5 hours operation. Particle
size was then determined by sieve analysis and for
nanoparticles using a particle size analyzer (Malvern
Zetasizer 3000, UK). Two volumes percent, 10 and 20,
were considered for mixing the active carbon with sand
filter. The saline water (EC=12 dS/m) entered in to the
sand filter container, under two flow rates of 3 and 6
m3/hr. Sampling was completed in 50 minutes, EC,
sodium (Na+), Calcium (Ca2+), carbonate (CO32-),
bicarbonate (HCO3-), chloride (Cl-), magnesium (Mg2+),

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Nanostructures (ICNS4)


12-14 March, 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

sulphate (SO42-), hardness, sodium adsorption ratio


(SAR), pH were measured in the outlet water.

Results and Discussion


According to the results, the trend of uniformity
coefficients for sands are as follows:
Fine sand (3.3) < Medium sand (2.5) < Coarse sand (1.5)
Uniformity coefficient close to 1 indicates more
uniformity in grading size. The particle size distribution
of rice husk ash and almond husk ash are shown in Figs.
1 and 2, respectively. The nanoparticles of RHA are in
the range of 200-500 nm, with the highest frequency in
300 nm. The nanoparticles of AHA are in the range of
100-1000 nm with, the highest frequency in 200 nm.

Figure 2: Nanoparticles size distribution of AHA


Asadi [4] reported the order of absorptive surface area
is as follows:
Crude< Acid< Alkaline< Coal (ash)
She expressed in raw materials, coarse particles of
organic debris have low surface area.
Effect of Contact Time on EC

Figure 1: Nanoparticles size distribution of RHA


Effect of Particle Size

The specific surface of RHA is 100 times more than its


raw sample. Particles' specific surface increased with the
production of RHA and AHA [4]. There is a significant
difference (p0.05) between nano and miliparticles. The
EC of water, in using nanoparticles, showed 94%
reduction.
In water containing relatively high amounts of
bicarbonate ions, the tendency of Ca2+ and Mg2+ to
precipitate is high. This action causes an increase in SAR
of soil solution. Results using the miliparticles showed
that the reduction of pH was more than nanoparticles,
however, there is no significant different between those.
The smaller the particle size, greater is the adsorption
capacity. Ram Bishnoi et al. [9] reported that 93.28% and
81.78% Cr (IV) are removed with 0.3 and 1.0 mm
activated rice husk (ARH), respectively.
The adsorption capacity of rice husk depends on the
surface activities- in other words, specific surface area
available for solute- surface interaction, which is
accessible to the solute. It is expected that adsorption
capacity will be increased with a larger surface area.
Adsorption being a surface phenomenon, the smaller
adsorption sizes will offer comparatively larger surface
areas and higher adsorption will occur at equilibrium.

Ions removal rate took place at the initial 20 minutes


of the experiments, and 50% of EC removal took place at
this time. The highest removal (93.6%) was related to
AHA nanoparticles with 10% volume and flow rate of 6
m3/hr. With flow rate of 3 m3/hr the highest rate of EC
reduction, were obtained 94.2 and 93 percent, using 10
and 20 percent of RHA, respectively (Figs. 3 and 4).
Contact time of the water containing ions with
absorbents is one of the effective parameters in removal
and reduction of ions using the absorbents. Several
studies have been done on the effect of contact time of
ions with absorbents [1,4,7] showing that removal percent
of ions increase with the increase of contact time of
absorbents.
Removal percentage of control with a flow rate of 6
m3/hr was 41.3, and control with a flow rate of 3 m3/hr
was about 39.6.

Figure 5: Reduction of EC in flow rate of 3 m3/hr

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Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Nanostructures (ICNS4)


12-14 March, 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

This work showed that locally available materials such as


RHA and AHA can be used as efficient sorbent for ions
removal, representing an effective and environmentally
cleans utilization of saline water. More studies are needed
to optimize the system to investigate the economic
aspects and to confirm the applicability of these sorbents
under real conditions.

Acknowledgment
The authors express their sincere gratitude to the Iranian
Nanotechnology Initiative Council for the partial
financial support of this research.

References
Figure 6: Reduction of EC in flow rate of 6 m3/hr

Conclusions
1) Comparing of the two ash particles, it seems that
particles of AHA are more effective on ion removal and
reduction of water EC.
2) Statistically, after using nanoparticles, we had a
remarkable reduction in water EC, Mg, Na, Cl, CO32-,
HCO3-, SO42-, hardness, and SAR. However, this wasn't
true about Ca2+ and HCO3- . But, it should be mentioned
that, contrasting to miliparticles, nanoparticles could
reduce the concentration of Ca ion, however, statistically
it wasn't significant.
3) Using various volumes of ashes in sand filter,
caused different results. With application of 10% ashes a
noticeable decrease in the concentrations were absorbed,
whereas using 20% of particles volume was led to
decrease in concentration of some ions (i.e. HCO3-, CO32-,
and pH).
4)
pH of outlet water from a sand filter containing
AHA showed more variations compared to the pH of
outlet water from a sand filter containing RHA. Using
AHA in water with high pH, can make the conditions
more proper for precipitating of HCO3- and CO32-.
Though implementing more changes on pH, also causes
an increase in the use of chlorinator and acid washing in
the drip irrigation system. The amount of absorption
increase with the increase of particles' contact time with
absorbents. The most absorption rate was seen in the 20th
minutes, and after 40th minutes, absorption reaches to
equilibrium.
5) To use of saline water in drip irrigation system
and to decrease emitter plugging, it's better to use
nanoparticles of RHA.

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