Soil strata abilities to drain water at high volume is the essential properties in RBF (Riverbank Filtration). An artificial barrier (AB) is a man-made vertical barrier to pre-treat water abstraction intake. It is a mixture of sand (local soil), granular activated carbon (GAC) and zeolite. In this work, AB was made to enhance the flow of groundwater as well as water quality. The soil analysis of borehole near Kerian River featured clay, sandy clay loam and sandy loam. In the study, a local soil was mixed Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) at 9:1 (10% GAC), 7:3 and 1:1 ratios. The immediate results are the permeability increased with the percentage of GAC. Further, similar tests were conducted with a mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite in ratio of 5:2:3 in a laboratory scale physical model. The removal of turbidity and iron in a local soil (without GAC and zeolite) in the range of 59% - 88% and 74% - 87%, respectively. However, a better removal capacity of turbidity and iron were found in the mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite up to 76% - 98.8% and 73% -92% removals respectively. In sum, the initial study indicate that the mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite with a specific ratio could provide a pre-treatment of turbidity and iron removal in RBF abstraction.
Removal of iron and manganese using granular activated carbon and zeolite in artificial barrier of riverbank filtration