ARAÚJO, A. M. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/8441427300369559; ARAÚJO, Ana Maria de Souza.
Résumé:
Water is characterized as an essential substance for the maintenance of life in
living beings, and it has a significant influence on industrial development, besides
being quite abundant on Earth. Considering the importance of water, there is a
need to have information on the quality of water consumed, since it is
characterized as inappropriate for human consumption, and disagrees with the
potability requirements established by the Ministry of Health Ordinance. Because
of the scarcity and lack of water resources, the population has used water from
sources to survive and develop their activities, such as groundwater and
fountains. Resources that minimize contaminants present in water have been
sought, so that it can be useful and renewable, as well as the use of natural
adsorbents currently used to remove some contaminants present in water, such
as the use of cork and its derivatives. Therefore, this study aims to use cork as
a natural adsorbent to treat groundwater in the municipality of Baraúna PB, and
water from fountains in the municipality of Coronel Ezequiel RN. The present
research was carried out at six points: four underground wells points, and two
fountain points. Measurements of pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, hardness,
alkalinity, total dissolved solids, chloride content, and identification of sodium and
potassium were performed. The chemical composition of natural cork after
treatment was analyzed using an Energy Dispersive XRay Fluorescence
Spectrometer. Among the parameters analyzed before adsorption, only the
values obtained in the identification of sodium in samples from BaraúnaPB did
not correspond to the maximum value allowed by Consolidation Ordinance Nr.
5/2017 by the Ministry of Health, characterizing the samples as inappropriate for
consumption. The adsorbent use proved to be efficient in the treating process of
samples because it decreased some studied parameters values, but for the
turbidity parameter there was a significant increase in all analyzed samples.