SUSTAINABLE TREATMENT FOR HIGH IRON CONCENTRATION IN GROUNDWATER FOR IRRIGATIONPURPOSES

摘要

Groundwater contamination has major complications on the environment and can pose serious threat to agriculture and human health. Since the industrial revolution, one of the major concerns regarding the contamination of groundwater is the precipitation and accumulation of heavy metals. Iron and manganese are occurring naturally in groundwater where both elements are present in anoxic environment. Therefore World Health Organization has approved the treatment of water if concentrations of iron and manganese are higher than O.img/L and 0.1 mg/L respectively. The issue of higher concentrations of iron and manganese in groundwater wells at Farafra oasis, Egypt is unbearable since iron levels from 4.9ppm to 8.8ppm and manganese levels from 0.2ppm to 0.43ppm. Several techniques were applied to remove iron and manganese from groundwater. The aim of this investigation was to focus on reducing these high levels of iron and manganese to some safe levels for irrigation purposes. The relationships between oxygen levels and precipitation rates of iron and manganese are the main key in solving this problem. Instead of some well-known chemical treatments, an innovated technique would help in resolving such problem. The idea is to subject the groundwater to as much air as possible to maximize participation of these two elements of iron and manganese. Iron and manganese concentrations after aeration followed by filtration came down to 0.11, 0.05 mg/L respectively in all cases. These low levels are still subjectedto further improvement Simulation modeling will be utilized to further investigate this phenomena.