Use of Clam Shells in Water Purification

摘要

Access to clean water is an imperious problem in developing countries today. This is mainly due to water pollution. Ongoing rapid industrialization in developing countries has caused the levels of heavy metals in water bodies to significantly increase, causing adverse effects on the environment. To solve this problem, shells of molluscs, a type of seafood commonly consumed, can be used to remove metal ions from wastewater as they contain calcium carbonate. The objective of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of an eco-friendly prototype that capitalizes on lala clams and blood cockles (shells native to the Asia-Pacific region) in the removal of heavy metal ions copper(Ⅱ), iron(Ⅲ) and lead(Ⅱ).