Groundwater is a major source of drinking water supply espeacially in Kelantan due to shortageof clean surface water. However, groundwater quality is found to be high in hardness, salinity,and concentration of iron, manganese, ammonium and flouride especially at rural area inKelantan. Therefore, groundwater should be treated before it can be used for domestic purposes.Currently, water treatment used chamicals for heavy metals removal although chemicals wereknown to be hazardous for human consumption. Thus, plant based material was proposed to givemore environmental friendly approach for drinking water treatment especially groundwater. Theobjective of this study is to determine the performance of extracted rambutan seed in removal ofiron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) from groundwater. Groundwater sample were collected fromseleced wells in Tanah Merah district, Kelantan, Malaysia. Iron and manganese contents ofgroundwater samples were measured before and after the jar test in the laboratory by usingAtomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). All water samples were tested with differentconcentration of rambutan seed cruded extracts. The experiments were carried out with coagulantdosage of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 mg/L with the interval of 1.0 mg/L. The results showthat, Nephelium lappaceum seed can remove up to 91.38% of Fe in groundwater sample by usingoptimal dosage of l/L. The seed also able to remove up to 90.91% Mn in groundwater samplesusing the optimal dosage 5mg/L. The high removal rate for both iron and manganese reflectedthat rambutan seed has a potential to replace chemicals coagulant in water treatment. Hopefullywith this finding, peopl will have access to reasonable price, clean and safe drinking water and thegoverment can also save a few thousand ringgit for treatment expenses.
Performance of Rambutan Seed Extracts as Iron and Manganese Removal in Drinking Groundwater well in Tanah Merah, Kelantan
