PROJECT DESCRIPTION

CORN COB EXPERIMENT TO TREAT WATER POLLUTION

Water pollution has become a major issue over the years. It has caused death, disease, and
many health problems. It is a major concern of our world today and we as humans need to confront it.
In Malaysia, the major constituent of water pollution is mainly from the water that releases from shop
drains which includes food oil, used oil from workshops, and plastic wrappings of various foods.
These contaminants end its journey in the river. Consequences of these dirts makes the river water
polluted and not safe for living things such as fishes and we human. Outback people usually use river
water for their daily uses that includes drinking as well.
Encountering this problem need huge amount of modal to fix water treatment system in every
place. Corn cob is a thing that will be threw after eating the corn seeds. In recent studies, corn cob is
used to treat dirty water and the result is impressive. It removes 70% 80% of contaminants and it
makes the corn cob as a perfect agricultural waste to be used for water treatment.
Corn cob is an excellent choice because it is easy to get and the production rate of corn is
huge which makes it as a reliable source. It is also a cheap and Eco-friendly way of purifying water.
And it will also open up a new market for corn cobs that are usually discarded as bio-waste. The idea
of the project is to breakdown corn cob into various sizes from pieces till powder to finely filter the
water including waste oils in the contaminated water. Contaminants like oxides of salts,

detergents, suspended particles, colored dyes, oil and grease get adsorbed in the surface
of the corn cobs. Some of the heavy metals are also adsorbed by corn cobs. So we
planned to conduct a water treatement experiment and demonstrate that to public, so that
they could apply it at home too. For now, this project was done in lab scale to calculate the
effluent of corn cob in removing contaminants and at the same time this idea will be taught to the
younger generations to implement the importance of water.

Shown below are the flow diagram of the corn cobs and the image of the lab scale instrument that will
be used in the experiment to purify contaminated water:

Fig.1 Diagram of corn

cob

Fig.2 Instrumental
setup for the
experiment (Robinson,
2015)

PROCEDURES
1. Water sample was collected from nearby river which is from Sg. Tampin.
Collected sample was analyzed before treating it using corn cobs for the level of
impurities.
2. 250g of whole piece corn cobs was inserted in the top container to eliminate the
particles which can be seen by naked eye.
3. In the 2nd container, approximately 150g of sliced corn cobs was inserted to trap
smaller grains.
4. 3rd container was filled with 100g of corn cob powder which is grinded using
normal blender to absorb gasoline and oils.
5. Corn cobs was burned into a blackened charcoal-like material to absorb the dyes
and leads. In the 4th container, 100g of burned corn cobs was used.
6. In the last container, fine sand was filled to eliminate the toxin and chemicals.
7. The filtered water sample was analyzed and was compared with the unfiltered
sample.
RESULT!!!!!!!!
Outcome of the project
This project was carried out on Techno festival that has been held in UniKL MICET on
5th December 2015. Our main target audience were all the participant of Technofest 2015,

escpecially the students from different colleges as well as Secondary School. Our main
objectives were to give enhance the awareness on environmental pollution among public and to
develop a product or solution that reduces chemical or biological waste in our daily life . There were a
lot of participant came to our booth and they seems to be very interested to know about the
experiment. Our booth was placed in the middle of the crowd and therefore it larger the chance to
attract participant to our booth.
Four retort stand and 4 conical flask were used to carry out our experiment. Our group member
explained the step by step process and demonstrate how it works. The experiment was succesful and
we manage to prove to the participants that corn cobs are suitable waste to treat water pollution. We
were so excited to explain about the process to public and we receive a very positive feedback from
them. Some VIP also presented to our booth and were interested to know about the process. We were
so humbled to receive a very warm response from them. They congratulate us for conducting such
environmental awareness activities.
The best outcome of the project was, we were interviewed by The ENACTUS, an International Club
that is working on scientific experiments that could serve our community. Our experiment attracted
them and they wanted to take it to the next level.
As for conclusion, we have achieved our objectives of our mini project which is enhancing the
awareness of preserving our environment from pollutions by using waste raw materials. By
conducting this mini project,we also has gained the awareness and our responsibility as technologist
towards our environment and society.