Performance of Rambutan Seed as Iron and Manganese Removal in Groundwater

Ground water is a source of preferred water supply especially in Kelantan because of its good natural quality.However groundwater may be exposed to contamination by various anthropogenic activities,such as agricultural, domestic and elevated concentration of The quality of groundwater normally related to high hardness. high salinity and elevated concentration of Iron manganese,ammonium and fluoride Therefore. groundwater should be treated before it can be used for domestic purposes Initially. water treatment used chemicals for heavy metals removal and chemicals were known to be hazardous for human consumption Thus plant based waste was proposed to provide a more environmental friendly approach for drinking groundwater treatment. This study was carried out with the objectives to use different dosage of rambutan seed extract in removing heavy metals while determine the water quality of groundwater sources. Nephelium lappaceum or locally known as rambutan is a native species found in Malaysia Rambutan seed based coagulant-flocculant was tested for groundwater collected within Tanah Merah district. Only the yellowish portions of the Rambutan seed were used to test coagulant rate and the optimum dosage The heavy metals content of groundwater samples were measured before and after the jar test in the laboratory by using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. All water samples were tested with different concentration of rambutan seed crude extract. The experiments were carried out with coagulant dosage of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7 0, 8.0 mg/L with the interval of 1.0mg/L. The results shown that Nephelium lappaceum seed can remove up to 91 38% of Fe in groundwater sample by using optimal dosage of 6mI/L. The seed also removed 90,91% manganese concentration in groundwater samples using the optimal dosage of 5mg/L. Rambutan seed was proposed for Iron and Manganese removal due to the high seed oil content which was believed to remove both the heavy metals Besides, rambutan seeds are abundant in supply especially during the fruit season and therefore the price to get the supply is lower compared to other chemicals.
The high removal rate for both iron and manganese proved that rambutan seed has a great potential to replace other absorbents or chemicals.