ABSTRACT
Presence of pathogens in high numbers in waste water is a cause of concern. Techno economic feasibility has restricted the conventional and non conventional treatment approaches for pathogen removal. Despite prolific use, carbon adsorption technology remains an expensive treatment process. The present study investigates the use of rice husk (RH), saw dust (SD), groundnut shells (GS) as natural agro-residues and partially weathered deccan trap basalt (PWDTB) for their sorption capacities and desorption pattern for two indicator organisms viz. Escherichia coli K12 and Staphylococcus aureus. Sorption experiments were carried out at flow-rate of 1.5 bed volumes per hour (bv hr-1) for cell suspension volume of 4, 8, 16 and 32 bed volumes. PWDTB have shown high sorption coefficient and log removal for E. coli K12 whereas GS have shown high sorption coefficient and log removal for S. aureus. PWDTB have shown maximum desorption constant and log retention for E. coli K12 whereas GS have shown maximum desorption constant and log retention for S. aureus during desorption experiment. Retention pattern suggest that adsorption is partially irreversible for almost all the materials used. It suggest that PWDTB in combination with RH and / GS could help in removal of pathogens from waste water.