Evaluation of the efficiency of ceramic filters for water treatment in Kambata Tabaro zone, southern Ethiopia

Abstract Background The Ceramic water filtration has been greatly improving the most waste materials from drinking water in developing countries. This research was carried out to determine the efficiency of the Ceramic water filters in improving water impurities. The raw materials were grind, sieved with 0.5 mm opening mush size, mixed with water, molded in flower pot shape and fired at 700 °C, 750 °C and 800 °C. Results The average removing efficiency of the ceramic filters was found to be 59.6%, 86.3%, 87.6%, 56.9%, 59.02%, 88.98%,76.2%, 52.88%, 46.23% and 226.66 m L/h for turbidity, total coliform, E. coli, calcium, magnesium, sulphate, phosphate, iron, nitrite and flow rate, respectively in the analysis. Most of the ceramic filters were removed microbial from the contaminated river water effectively compared to the World Health Organization standard. The results showed that increasing the burn-out material during production of the filter elements increase the porosity and flow rate while decrease the removal efficiency of turbidity, microorganisms and water hardness agent from the source water. It was observed that there was a significance difference in removing total coliform, E. coli and flow rate between ceramic filters with different percentage composition of clay to sawdust. The change in percentage composition of clay to sawdust and firing temperature did not show significance difference in removing actions of iron, nitrite, sulphate, phosphate, magnesium and calcium. Conclusion Based on the result, it is possible to conclude that the ceramic water filtrate that prepared from 80, 25 and 5% clay, sawdust and grog at firing temperature of 750 °C and 800 °C with lower porosity of the ceramic filter elements were found to be have the best removal efficiency