In a research the scientists of the IIT (ISM) have succeeded in development of an absorbent that helps in removal of Arsenic from groundwater.
A four-member team of researchers led by Dr. S.R. Samadder, Associate professor of Environment Science Engineering Department claims that through coating of nano manganese on calcinated laterite soil arsenic can be removed .
Research scholar- Roshan Prabhakar and two M Tech Students, Somaparna Ghosh and Ali helped in the research.
“Arsenic has been identified as Class I human carcinogen and the World Health Organization has set the permissible limit to 10 microgram per litre in drinking water,” said Dr. Samadder.
“Unfortunately most of the Arsenic affected population belongs to rural areas and they do not have access to safe drinking water” added Dr. Sammader .
"We have developed an adsorption based scalable treatment system for the resource deprived community living in the rural hinterland. Nano based adsorption system is gaining popularity among researchers for removal of arsenic ions but since it is costly to synthesize nano adsorbents so in our research we utilized the cheap and readily available laterite soil as a base material for nano coating” explained Dr. Samadder.
The other significance of the research Dr. Sammader said “Laterite soil as a base material for nano Mn coating not only provided a synergism for removal but also provided a way to think beyond sole use of nano material for adsorption purposes.
“For treating 1000 litres of water having 200 ppb concentration approximately 0.70 kg Laterite Nano Manganese is required out of which much of the portion consists of Laterite soil particles” said Dr. Samadder.
This can help remove arsenic from ground water in different parts of the country depending upon the percentage, he added.