Quality check of the filtered water from coconut shell-based filter

ITS Campus, ITS News – The availability of clean water is important for life, but it is not uncommon for people to still have difficulties in their fulfillment due to various things such as pollution. Following up on this, the Community Service Team (Abmas) of the Institute of Technology Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) designed a water filter made from coconut shell.

The research takes place in Sumberwudi Village, Karanggeneng District, Lamongan, where the community encountered water pollution problems and difficulties in the filtering water process. For these communities, well water is the main focus to meet the daily needs of clean water. When the dry season arrives, the healthy water becomes brackish and makes people switch to using the flow of water of Bengawan Solo River.

 ITS Physics Department lecturer, Linda Silvia M.Si, the Abmas program initiator said that the large amount of sludge deposits carried from the river water makes the community have to do the screening process first. Not only that, factory waste and household waste that is deliberately dumped into the Bengawan Solo River add to the length of the series of problems that must be faced to get clean water.

“People still use a simple deposition system, so it can take up to 24 hours to wait for the mud to settle,” Linda said. It is indeed quite difficult for the community because of the large and urgent need for clean water. That’s why there is still a lot of water that contains silt and has a brownish colour that has just been distributed to people’s homes.

Linda Silvia (right) with the team explained how the water filter works.

The alumnus of ITS Physics Department then took the initiative to make water filters more effective and efficient to overcome this clean water problem. He uses the coconut shell as the base material of activated carbon in the water filter. “Coconut shells are cheap, their availability in nature is also abundant,” She said.

Together with four lecturers from the same department, Prof. Dr Darminto MSc, Prof. Agus Purwanto DSc, Dr Mochamad Zainuri MSc, and Fahmi Astuti MSi PhD, Linda designed a water filter with a backwash system. “That system is chosen so that the filter can wash filter media,” explained the lecturer who active in the Advanced Materials Laboratory of ITS Physics Department.

According to Linda, the water filter media used consists of gravel, silica sand, zeolite, activated carbon from coconut shells. The filter is equipped with a clean water tank, pipes, and additionals filter media. To maintain the quality of water filtering results, a set of water quality testers are also included in the water filter package resulting from the collaboration of lecturers and nine students of the ITS Physics Department who attended the Community Service Program (KKN).

Desain Rangkaian Filter Tunggal dengan tempurung kelapa sebagai karbon aktif yang diterapkan di Desa Sumberwudi, Lamongan

Linda Explained, water quality is assessed based on the amount of dissolved solid substances or total dissolved solids (TDS) in water, acidity level or pH of water, salt or salinity content, electrical or electro-conductivity, and water temperature. “All of them obtained from the results of testing with water quality testers, which will test periodically,” added Linda.

A total of two filter units have two different places at once. A single water filter in one of the mosques in Sumberwudi Village. While the double water filter in SMPN 1 Karanggeneng. The filter placed in the school is expected to be a learning medium for its students.

With this water filter from coconut shell, Linda and the team hope to be an example for the surrounding community to make a more effective filter independently. “How to make it quite easy; the material is also easy to get. Hopefully, the community can model so that the supply of clean water can be available at any time,” she concluded. (yus/pan/ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS

Linda Silvia (right) with the teachers’ board of SMPN 1 Karanggeneng, Lamongan after handing over the water filter