Removal of Microbes from Hospital Wastewater Using Neem Husk and Cake Activated Carbon

Abstract

Biowaste from neem (Azadirachta indica) were used to prepare activated carbon using ZnCl2 and H3 PO4 as activating agents. The efficiency of the prepared adsorbents; Neem Husks activated with ZnCl2 (NHZ), Neem Husks activated with H3 PO4 (NHH), Neem Seed activated with ZnCl2 (NCZ) and Neem seed activated with H PO4 (NCH) to remove microbes from wastewater were evaluated. The effect of initial volume of wastewater and time of exposure of the wastewater to the prepared activated carbons were studied and related to the performance of the adsorbents. The result shows high performance of the adsorbents in microbial load reduction. The bacterial load was greatly reduced by 99.4% (2600 CFU/100 cm3 ), 99.3% (3000 CFU/100 cm3 ), 99.3% (3100 CFU/100 cm3 ) and 99.3% (2800 CFU/100 ml) by the NCZ, NCH, NHZ and NHH samples respectively. The fungal load was also decreased significantly by NCZ, NCH, NHZ and NHH samples to 88.75% (2700 CFU/100 cm3 ), 90.0% (2400 CFU/100 cm3 ), 85.83% (3400 CFU/100 cm3 ) and 90.42% (2300 CFU/100 cm3 ) respectively. NCZ was the most effective of the prepared carbon, with a 99.4% reduction of the bacterial load.