Grey water recycling with corn cob as an adsorbent

Abstract

India is facing water crisis and there is a need to critically look at alternative approaches like 3R formula to ensure sustainable water management. The grey water from houses can be captured, treatedwith agricultural waste like corn waste and reused for garden washing and flushing purposes. In this study we have come up with a solution to build a vertical reactorpacked with corn cobs for treatment of domestic grey water by taking advantage of the corn cob’s porous structure, high free-surface volume, sorption characteristics for a wide range of solutes. Based on different trail the packed bed vertical reactor is able to attain an initial reduction efficiency of 40% of BOD, 70% of COD, 40% ofTDS, 40% of SS and 35% of Surfactants with a detention period of 10 minutes. If the detention period is increased and maintained as 1-2 hours the efficiency of the treatment can be improved.