Evaluación del desempeño del filtro de olla cerámica EKOFIL® bajo dos concentraciones de plata coloidal

Abstract

The ceramic pot filter technology impregnated with colloidal silver is a viable alternative for the treatment of water for human consumption, characterized by its low cost, ease of handling and efficiency. In this research project, the performance of a Colombian-made filter model, impregnated with two concentrations of colloidal silver (500 ppm and 1000 ppm) was evaluated. PH, conductivity (µS/cm) and turbidity (UNT) were defined as follow-up variables and as a response variable total silver (mg/L). Synthetic water was used adjusting turbidity with kaolin (5.07 ± 0.51 UNT) and conductivity with NaCl (0.37 ± 0.5 µS/cm). The filters were evaluated under two operational conditions based on the pH of the synthetic water or tributary; in the first condition the pH was of the order of 8.60 ± 0.83 units and in the second of 5.36 ± 0.25 units. Additionally, in the first condition, synthetic water was inoculated with an average E.coli concentration of 2.1 x 103 CFU / 100 mL in order to evaluate the influence of the colloidal silver concentration on the microbiological removal efficiency. The results of the study showed that there is no significant statistical difference between 500 ppm and 1000 ppm filters in terms of the removal of E.coli in the effluent (gl=18, F=18.8.49, p=0.41) reaching average efficiencies 98%, in addition to evidencing that there is no health risk since the maximum concentration measured was 0.03 mg Ag/L in the 1000 ppm filter. The average turbidity of the effluent was 0.47 ± 0.22 UNT for the 500 ppm filter and 0.59 ± 0.25 UNT for the 1000 ppm filter, showing that there are no significant statistical differences in terms of turbidity (gl=43, F=47.49, p=0.29 ). It is concluded that increasing the concentration of silver in the filters does not influence the efficiency of microbiological removal and, on the contrary, it could unnecessarily increase the cost of the filtration system, being advisable to impregnate the ceramic pot with a concentration of 500 ppm.