Preliminary study on the application of loofah fiber and coconut fiber in water filtration

Water treatment is the process to make the water reusable to consumers. There are several process to treat water such as chlorination, sedimentation and filtration. Water filtration is known to separate substance or object in contaminated water. Method of filtration is vary depending on the location of the targeted material whether it is dissolved in the suspended as a solid or fluid. This paper present a preliminary study to constructing a low-cost of water filter by using materials namely coarse aggregates, sand, activated carbon in additional of loofah and coconut fiber. The result was measured by analyzing the water parameter such as, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolve Oxygen (DO), turbidity, and colour. The result of raw water and filtered water are characterized according to the National Water Quality Standard (NWQS) for Malaysia. The final results from laboratory experiment showed a good improvement of water parameter during the application of coconut and loofah fiber in water filtration. The BOD5 result for coconut and loofah fiber model show significant improvement from class IV to class I and III.