2011 International Conference on Environmental and Computer Science

IPCBEE vol.19(2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore

Hardness Removal from Groundwater by Synthetic Resin from Waste

Plastics

Prapat Pentamwa 1+, Wipasinun Thipthara 1 and Suparat Nuangon 1

1
School of Environmental Health, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakornratchasima, 30000. Thailand

Abstract. The capacity of waste polystyrene plastics for hardness groundwater removal was investigated in
this study. The wastes of polystyrene were prepared from foam of food packaging and air bubble plastic.
They were synthesized into active adsorbent cationic resin. The water hardness was pumped through the
designed column with combination of made resin and sand-gravel filters for groundwater treatment. The
results revealed that the hardness removal efficiency of added made resins in the system was higher than no
added resin (43% vs 12%) and they were below the acceptable Thailand standard for groundwater drinking
water of 300 mgCaCO3/L. However, there were no difference in term of hardness efficiency capability for
different types of polystyrene plastics and the thickness of resin used in the study.
Keywords: Hardness water, groundwater, resin, waste plastics.

1. Introduction
Water hardness is the major amount of calcium and magnesium cations in water. Hardness is mostly
expressed as milligram of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) equivalent per liter and also can be mentioned in term
of carbonate (temporary) and noncarbonated (permanent) hardness. The hardness in water is naturally
occurring in groundwater which weathering of limestone, sedimentary rock and calcium bearing minerals.
They are also present locally from industrial effluent such as chemical and mining industry or the excessive
use of lime to the soil in agriculture field.[1,2] Hardness concentrations in natural water are up to 100
mgCaCO3/L, depending on the associated sources, and are presenting in the range of 10-500 mgCaCO3/L in
drinking water.[2]. In Thailand, the groundwater quality standard for drinking purposes of total hardness as
CaCO3 is set to less than 300 mg/L for suitable allowance guideline.[3] The water quality hardness standard in
Thailand is divides hardness classifications into following categories: soft water, 0-75 mg/L; medium water,
75-150 mg/L; hard water, 150-300 mg/L; and very hard water, 300 mg/L and above, respectively. However,
there is no guideline value for total hardness in drinking water from World Health Organization.[2]
Hardness water is mainly an aesthetic concern because of the unpleasant taste and reduces the ability of
soap to produce lather. It is also cause scale formations in pipes and on distribution system.[1] Due to the high
levels of hardness in water, people may become unacceptable with unaccomplished taste. Therefore, the
most common method to remove of hardness in household level for drinking and ground water utilization is
boiling. However, there are various others methods for calcium and magnesium hardness removal from
groundwater such as reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and chemical treatment with lime-soda ash method.[4,5]
The ion exchange process is extensively used and also the most effective methods to remove hardness in
groundwater. It is contained with resin that calcium and magnesium ion can be exchanged for sodium and
potassium ions. The commercials resins are presently used in individual home and industrials purposes to
remove the ionic impurity in water. The ion exchange resin can be either natural green sand or synthetic
zeolite resin, known as polystyrene resin which is most commonly used now. Polystyrene is thermoplastic

+
Corresponding author. Tel.: + 6644 223 941; fax: +66 44223 920.
E-mail address: [email protected].
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substances that are solid state in room temperature. The foam polystyrene products are ubiquitous used as
insulation, packaging materials, and foam drink cups. However, they are environmental impact concern for
the usage of foam polystyrene packaging. The discarded polystyrene does not biodegradable and also resist
to photolysis. The study for polystyrene products recyclable is very limited. One investigation study shown
the possibility used of polystyrene white coffee cup converted into adsorbent resin to remove hardness in
water.[6] In the present study was to investigate the use of waste polystyrene foam and plastics such as foam
packaging for food and air bubble plastics as synthetic resins with a combination of packed sand-gravel
filters in columns system to remove hardness in groundwater.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study area and groundwater samples
This experiment was carried out using groundwater from Surathumpitak school well number MY4538 in
the area of Nakornratchasima province of Thailand. Groundwater was collected in March 2011. The
province is located at the northeastern part of Thailand where the area is covers more than one-third of the
country, a so called “Khorat Plateau”. It is one of the main physiographic regions of Thailand.[7] The
northeast region has been concerned with water supply consumption due to the long dry period of about 8
months per year and has low level of rainfall intensity. The surface water is also limited causing insufficient
water for domestic and agriculture uses. Therefore, groundwater is play an important role for water supply in
northeast Thailand.

2.2. Materials preparation

The synthetic resins were prepared from wastes polystyrene foam for food packaging and air bubble
polystyrene plastics. The method for resin preparation was applied from Bekri-Abbes (2008).[6] Briefly, both
of polystyrene foam and plastics were crushed to obtained size of 0.2-0.3 cm2 for the total weight of about 30
g. Each 5 g of raw material was transferred in flask with 100 mL 95% sulfuric acid and left to react under
room temperature till the reaction period is completed. The slurry was filtered with a funnel and washed with
250 mL of distilled water for ten times. The pH paper was use to check the residual sulfuric acid in washed
water to ensure the removal from resin. The resin was then dried at 40 oC for 30 min. The neutralization
process was introduced by stirring the resin for 2 h at 500 ml 1 M NaCl solution. This process aims to
convert the sulfonated polymer resin into its Na+ form. The ion exchange capacity was evaluated by
measuring the concentration of H+ which was exchange with Na+ when acid form of sulfonated polystyrene
was equilibrated with NaCl solution. The dry polymer (5g) in the H+ form was placed 100 mL of 0.2 M NaCl
solution and shaken for 2 h, the amount of H+ released by the polymer was determined by the titration with
0.01 M NaOH. The both fine sands and gravels were used in the study as filter material in the packed column
with the size diameter range of 0.125-0.250 mm and 4.0-8.9 mm, respectively.

2.3. Hardness removal system

This study was a pilot-experiment study. The treated groundwater samples were produced by the
following treatment columns including top packed made resin and then fine sand and fine gravels filters. The
detail experimental setup of the study was illustrated in Fig 1. The experimental train was continuously run
with time through the separations of 5 packed columns with different thickness of filters. Each column was
made from polyvinyl chloride plastic with 10 cm diameter and 60 cm long column. The groundwater was
pumped through columns with flow rate of 1 L/min for 1 h. The raw groundwater and effluents water of pre-
and post experiment column were measured for temperature, pH, conductivity and total hardness parameters.
The total hardness analysis was measured using the titrametric method in according to the Standard methods
(1998).[8]

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 Remark:

Pump Bubble plastic resin

Foam resin
Sand
Gravels
Groundwater Feed tank

C I II III IV

Effluent Effluent Effluent Effluent Effluent

Fig. 1: The experiment set up for continuous flow of packed sand-gravel filter and synthetic resins from waste plastics.

Remark: C is the control column which is containing of packed 100 g gravels and 600 g sand filters, I is the column
which is combining of packed gravels-sand filters and 392.5 cm3 foam resins, II is the column which is combining of
packed gravels-sand filters and 785 cm3 foam resins, III is the column which is combining of packed gravels-sand
filters and 392.5 cm3 bubble plastic resins and IV is the column which is combining of packed gravels-sand filters and
785 cm3 bubble plastic resins.

3. Results and Discussion

The results of raw ground water quality are shown in Table 1. The total hardness was a major parameter
of groundwater which is averaged of 440 mgCaCO3/L. It is noted that the total hardness as CaCO3 was
considered to be very hard water and also was above the suitable allowance according to the Thailand
national standard for groundwater quality for drinking purposes which is set to less than 300 mg/L. Although
there have been limited epidemiology studies report shown the relationship between hardness in water and
health effect such as cardiovascular disease. [2] However, the problem of hardwater is majority on home
nuisance with the high soups and detergents consumption for cleaning tasks. Hardwater also contributed to
inefficient and costly operation of water-using appliances. The water hardness are above 200 mg/L may
cause scale deposition in the distribution system. [2] In northeastern Thailand, the groundwater resources are
very important due to a shortage of water in the long occasionally drought period per year. Moreover,
groundwater quality problem in Thailand is also predominantly shown the high constituents of chloride,
sulphate and iron substances in groundwater. For the northeastern Thailand, the main problem is high level
of chloride and hardness contents in groundwater quality. [7]

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 Table 1: Characteristics of groundwater

Samples Total Hardness pH Temperature Conductivity

o
(mgCaCO3/L) ( C) (µS)
I 440 6.73 25.6 853
II 440.7 6.69 25.6 853
III 440 6.83 25.6 855
Average± SD 440±0.3 6.75±0.07 25.6 854±1.1

The determination results of ground water quality through experiment designed column are given in
Table 2. The total hardness treated water from control column (no packed resin) was averaged of 386.7
mgCaCO3/L. It can be seen that it was exceeded the Thailand standard of 300 mgCaCO3/L. For the column I,
II, III and IV, the total hardness concentrations of treated water were not significant different and they fell in
the range of 248-250 mgCaCO3/L. It can be observed that the level of total hardness parameters for the
treated water of all the design packed column were acceptability below the Thai standard for groundwater
drinking water except for the control column. The efficiency of filter column hardness removal system is
also shown in Table 2. It is indicated that the difference in hardness removing ability with filled made resin
and no-filled resin. The hardness removal efficiencies of added made resins in the system were higher than
no added resin (43% vs 12%). However, there were no different for both types of polystyrene plastics and
the thickness of resin in term of hardness efficiency capability.
Table 2: Hardness removal efficiency of groundwater by combination of sand filter and synthetic resin

Samples Total Hardness, mg CaCO3/L (Removal efficiency, %)

Control column Column I Column II Column III Column IV
Raw groundwater 440 440 440 440 440
Treated water I 388 (11.82) 250 (43.18) 248 (43.64) 252 (42.73) 246 (44.09)
Treated water II 384 (12.73) 252 (42.73) 250 (43.18) 250 (43.18) 248 (43.64)
Treated water III 388 (11.82) 248 (43.64) 246 (44.09) 248 (43.64) 252 (42.73)
Average± SD 386.7±2.3(12.12) 250±2 (43.18) 248±2 (43.64) 250±2 (43.18) 248.7±3 (43.49)

This study shows the possibility to use the waste plastic as a synthetic resin to remove hardness in
groundwater. The designed hardness removal system is expecting to be suitable for groundwater household
use. Further study should be conducted to investigate the recovery efficiency of made resin as well as be
examined others polystyrene plastics to be a potential polymer resin to remove hardness in water.

4. Acknowledgements
The authors are express thanks to the school of environmental health and the scientific and technology
equipment canter of Suranaree University of Technology, for providing analytical equipment for water
analysis.

5. References
[1] British Columbia of Canada. Hardness in groundwater fact sheet. The British Columbia groundwater association.
2007.
[2] WHO. Hardness in drinking water, Background document for development of WHO guidelines for Drinking
water quality. World Health Organization. 2003.
[3] PCD, the Pollution Control Department of Thailand. Water Quality Standard. 2011. Retrieved on May 2011 from
website: www.pcd.go.th

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[4] M.H. Entezari, and M. Tahmasbi. Water softening by combination of ultrasound and ion exchange. Ultrasonic
Sonochemistry. 2009, 16:356-360.
[5] S. Cinar abd B. Beler-Baykal. Ion exchange with natural zeolites: an alternative for water softening?. 2005. Water
Science & Technology. 51(11): 71-77.
[6] I. Bekri-Abbes, S. Bayoudh, M. Baklouti. The removal of hardness of water using sulfonated waste plastic. 2008.
Desalination. 222: 81-86.
[7] S. Wonsawat, O. Dhanesvanich, S. Panjasutaros. Groundwater resources of Northeastern Thailand. The National
conference on “Geologic resource of Thailand: potential for future development” 17-24 November 1992,
Department of Mineral Resources, Bangkok, Thailand.
[8] Standard methods for the Examination of water and wastewater. 20th edition, American Public Health
Association/American Water Work Association/Water Environmental Federation, Washington DC, USA.1998.

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