Page 23 - rise 2017

standards for effluent discharge: Standard A for discharge upstream of any raw water intake, and
Standard B for discharge downstream of any raw water intake [11][12].

Table IV
Design Effluent Values

Note: Unit in mg/l

Materials and Methods
Water samples collection
Water samples were collected from the drain located at Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz
Shah, Shah Alam. Two types of samples, before and after the filtration, were kept in the plastic bottle
to be tested at the National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM). The parameter to be
tested are oil and grease, COD, total suspended solid (TSS) and pH.

Preparation of banana filter
Two types of filter medium were prepared for the experiments:
• Filter 1 - Banana fiber only
• Filter 2 - Banana fiber mixed with stearic acid and lime (calcium carbonate)
Whilst stearic acid is used to increase the reaction capability of banana fiber to absorb oil,
lime is an alkaline substance that can neutralize the acid. The banana pith was cleaned with water, cut
into small pieces, grinded in a blender to extract the fiber, and then strained to drain the water. The
first filter medium was ready to be placed in the filter box for filtration process. For the preparation of
the second filter medium, the fiber was further mixed with stearic acid and lime.
The box of size14cm long x 60cm wide x 20cm high is framed using 1cm by 1cm square steel
net and covered with 0.2cm hole plastic net. A total of 5kg fiber was needed to fill up the filter box.
Water samples were poured into the filter box in two types of filter medium as mentioned earlier.
Suspended solids, silt and oil were trapped and absorbed by the fiber. The filtered water samples were
then collected for further testing in the laboratory.

Results and Discussion
The results of filter 1 and filter 2 on the removal of pH, TSS, COD and oil and grease are presented in
Table V. The results are measured against the guideline given in Table IV whilst the classification and
pH are referred to Table II.