Engineering student has a fruit peel solution for Bellandur Lake woes

BENGALURU: Intrigued by the frothing of

Bellandur Lake

on his way to college, a second-year undergraduate student with MVJ College of Engineering, Whitefield, has come up with a filtration process using fruit peels.

Pavan A, who is studying aeronautical engineering, tested the process at the lab of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. The results revealed that the treated water was fit for domestic uses other than drinking.

The KSPCB lab certificate, a copy of which is with TOI, stated that Pavan’s filtration process had brought down the pH level of the lake water from 6.8 to 4.08, fluoride content from 3.3mg/l to 0.27mg/l and phosphate from 23.5mg/l to 2.75mg/l.

“Frothing and fire in Bellandur Lake worried me every time I crossed the stretch or read about them in the news reports. About eight months ago, I thought of doing something about it instead of just blaming factories of polluting the lake,” said Pavan.

During his research, he analysed that along with volatile components in industrial effluents, the lake water also had fluoride and phosphate contents from household waste like detergents. “Ultimately, all this was leading to fire too,” he added.

After going through several research journals, Pavan collected peels of banana, pineapple, watermelon, citrus lemon and papaya from nearby juice shops for two days and sun-dried them for two weeks. “The peels were then converted into powder, using whihc I created several membranes. These were then activated with the help of hydrochloric acid before filtration process,” Pavan explained.

It took a day for five litres of water collected from Bellandur Lake to filter through the membranes. The treated water, Pavan said, was found to be usable for domestic purpose, but not for drinking.

Speaking of his long-term plan, Pavan said, “Currently, I am planning to create artificial membrane with the help of

nanotechnology

. A thick layer of these membranes can be laid on the lakebed to treat the water and make it usable.”