CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC

WASTEWATER BY FLY ASH AND BRICK KILN ASH

RANI DEVI and R. P. DAHIYA
Center for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110016, India

(Received 24 November 2003; accepted 25 October 2005)

Abstract. The potential of fly ash, brick kiln ash and commercial activated carbon is determined for
the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from domestic wastewater. Laboratory experiments
are conducted for investigating the effect of treatment time, adsorbent dose, pH of the media, initial
COD concentration, agitation speed and particle size of adsorbents on the COD reduction from the
domestic wastewater. Starting with an initial COD concentration of 1080 mg/l the maximum COD
reduction achieved for fly ash was 87.84%, brick kiln ash was 83.22% and commercial activated
carbon was 99.35 %. These values were achieved when the wastewater was treated with activated
carbon for 180 min, fly ash 250 min and brick kiln ash 300 min and the adsorbent dose was kept
respectively at 40 g/l, 60 g/l and 45 g/l for activated carbon, fly ash and brick kiln ash. Agitation speed
was kept constant at 600 rpm and the pH was maintained at 2 for activated carbon and fly ash and 5
for brick kiln ash. The maximum percent reduction is for 0.053 mm for smaller size of the particles.
Though the adsorption capacity of the ash for reducing the COD is lower than that of the commercial
activated carbon, the low material cost can make it an attractive option for the treatment of domestic
wastewater.
Keywords: activated carbon, adsorbents, adsorption capacity, brick kiln ash, chemical oxygen demand, fly ash, wastewater treatment

1. Introduction
The domestic wastewater in rural, urbanized villages and small towns in most
of the developing countries is discharged in open drains. Wastewater treatment
facilities do not exist in these areas and hence the wastewater is left to itself.
It accumulates in low lying areas or flows to the open water ponds, creating a
dangerous source of health hazard. The conventional wastewater treatment systems
are not suited for the decentralized applications for these inhabitants. There is,
therefore, a need for developing simple and cost effective method for the treatment
of domestic wastewater generated in rural areas, urbanised villages, and small
towns.
The main constituents of domestic wastewater are proteins, carbohydrates, detergents, tannins, lignin, humic acid, fulvic acid, melanic acid and many other
dissolved organic compounds (Rebhun and Manka, 1971; Manka et al., 1974). The
organic pollutants of wastewater are generally measured in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total organic carbon
Water, Air, and Soil Pollution (2006) 174: 3346
DOI: 10.1007/s11270-005-9022-9

C


Springer 2006

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R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

(TOC). These parameters as such do not show any individual chemical identity of
organic matter.
A number of treatment technologies are in use for the treatment of wastewater
contaminated with organic substances. Among them, adsorption process is considered as a promising method for removing heavy metals, colour and odour. This
method has aroused considerable interest during recent years (Rao et al., 2000) for
cleaning the wastewater.
Commercial activated carbon is regarded as the most effective adsorbent for controlling the organic load in liquids. However, due to its high cost and about 1015%
loss during regeneration, unconventional adsorbents like fly ash, brick kiln ash,
peat, lignite, bagasse pith, wood, saw dust etc. have attracted the attention of several investigators. Adsorption characteristics of such low cost materials have been
investigated for the removal of colour, dyes, heavy metals, and phenolic compounds
(Mall and Upadhyay, 1998) with varying degree of success. Several investigators
(Nelson and Guarino, 1969; Eye and Basu, 1970; Johnson et al., 1965; Deb et al.,
1966; Mott and Weber, 1992) have explored fly ash adsorbents for the treatment of
industrial wastewater to remove a variety of organic compounds and colour. Pandey
et al., 1985, have investigated the removal of copper from wastewater. Gupta et al.,
1990, during their studies for the removal of chrome dye from aqueous solutions,
found that the mixture of fly ash and coal (1:1) can substitute the activated carbon
adsorbents.
The carbon content of fly ash plays a significant role during the adsorption of
organic compounds (Banerjee et al., 1995). The adsorption capacity of an adsorbent
was found to increase with its carbon content. A similar trend was observed by other
investigators (Mott and Weber, 1992; Mancy et al., 1964; Rai and Kumar, 1995).
The general conclusions of these studies are that the fly ash and brick kiln ash have
good adsorption capacity for organic compounds in aqueous solutions. Thus, the
adsorption approach can offer a simple and economic end of the pipe solution to
the environmental challenges.
The adsorption characteristics of the fly ash and brick kiln ash can be exploited
for reducing the COD level in the domestic wastewater and can be used for decentralised applications in treating the wastewater generated in rural areas and smaller
towns. In the developing countries the electricity is always in short supply. The
adsorption based method should, therefore, be less energy intensive to make it a
viable process for the decentralised regions.
In this paper we have investigated the adsorption process for reducing the COD
of the domestic wastewater. The experimental investigations made using fly ash
and brick kiln ash adsorbents show that their adsorption capacities are comparable to that of the commercial activated carbon. Different conditions of initial
COD concentration, treatment time, pH, agitation speed, particle size of adsorbents and adsorbent dose were studied for COD reduction using fly ash; brick
kiln ash.

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

35

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. MATERIALS
We had collected samples of wastewater generated in an urbanised village Katwaria
Sarai, which is situated on the periphery of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
New Delhi, India. A part of the domestic wastewater generated in the village, was
discharged in open channels along its streets and accumulated in a low lying area.
Some of the water was discharged in a drain that passed through IIT campus and
joined other open drains on the way to the river Yamuna. For the present investigations, we had collected samples of the wastewater from the drain nearly 400 m
downstream the village discharge point. Since the wastewater reached the sampling
point after about 55 min (with a velocity of 7.2 m/min), part of the suspended solids
were settled on the way. The samples were stored at 23 C to avoid any changes in
their physico-chemical characteristics.
The fly ash used in the experiments was obtained from the Faridabad thermal
power plant situated in Haryana state, India. In this plant the fly ash is generated due
to the combustion of bituminous coal obtained from the Siyal and Gaddi coal mines
of Bihar state, India. The brick kiln ash was obtained from a brick kiln situated near
Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Delhi. This brick kiln, however, is not in
use at present. The ash is available free of cost, but its transportation cost should
be taken into account for any techno-economic study. The commercial (granular)
activated carbon (Calgon Co-Filtrasorb 400) was purchased from a local chemical
supplier.
The ash samples were washed with distilled water to remove their surface dust
and then dried in the sunlight. The samples were then divided in 4 categories by
sieving through sieves of 2.8, 0.710, 0.075 and 0.053 mm size. The segregated
powders were stored in airtight containers. These numbers give the upper limits on
the size of particles in the respective categories.
Normally the major components of fly ash and brick kiln ash are alumina, silica,
iron oxide, calcium oxide and residual carbon (Mall and Upadhyay, 1998; Rai and
Kumar, 1999). The constituents vary according to the fuel grade and their degree
of combustion.
2.2. METHODS
2.2.1. Characterisation of Adsorbents
Ash based activated carbon so prepared were analysed with respect to their important characteristics. Some of the important characteristics of these ashes are surface
area, pore size distribution, bulk density, porosity and moisture content.
The surface area of a material determines many of its physical and chemical
properties, including water retention capacity and reactivity with nutrients and

36

R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

contaminants. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (1938) known as BET method is the

most widely used procedure for the determination of surface area of solid materials.
In India Bureau of Indian Standard prescribes the standards. For the BET method
the standard is prescribed vide IS: 115781986. The BET surface area analyzer
Gemini 2365, manufactured by Particle and Surface Sciences Pty. Ltd., was used
to estimate the specific external surface of the solid adsorbents by determining the
volume of nitrogen gas that was adsorbed under controlled conditions.
Pore size distribution and pore volume was determined by mercury porosimetry.
Porosity of a solid was determined to evaluate the total pore volume and the relative
abundance of pores of different sizes or total volume of pores in 1g of a substance.
Bulk density for the powders was also measured. In obtaining the bulk density
volume of the pore space was inherently included. A simple method was used for
the estimation of the moisture content in the adsorbents. For this purpose 10 g of
the adsorbent sample was spread in a flat dish which was dried in a well-ventilated
oven at 105 5 C. After cooling in a desicator, the sample was again weighed.
2.2.2. Analysis of Wastewater
The pH and temperature of the wastewater samples were measured at the site
where the samples were collected. Electrical conductance, turbidity, total solids,
total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, BOD, most probable number test for
e-coli and COD were determined in the laboratory following the methods prescribed
in APHA (American Public Health Association, 1989) handbook.
COD analysis: The standard procedure of APHA was followed to determine
COD of the wastewater samples. The COD of the samples was measured before
and after their treatment with the adsorbents under all the treatment conditions
investigated in this paper.
2.2.3. Batch Experiments
All the experiments were carried out at ambient temperature (25 C) in batch mode.
The batch experiments were run in different flasks each of 250 ml capacity using
a flask shaker. The shaker speed could be varied between 100 to 800 rpm. Stirring
speed of the shaker was kept constant at 600 rpm for each run throughout the experiment ensuring equal mixing, except for those, which were meant for investigating
the effect of the agitation speed. Either dilute NaOH (0.1 N) or dilute HCl (0.1 N)
solutions were added to the wastewater samples, depending on the pH desired for
the experimental run. Obviously the amount of buffer added to the samples was different for obtaining different pH values. Each flask was filled with a known volume
of the sample having desired pH and stirring was then started. The samples were
withdrawn from the shaker at predetermined time intervals, filtered and analysed
for the COD.
For investigating the effect of treatment time 4 g adsorbent was mixed with
100 ml of the wastewater sample and the treatment was continued in the shaker flask.
The treatment was varied between 30 to 300 min for different batches of the samples.

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

37

Initial COD of the samples was 1080 mg/l. The residual COD concentration was
measured after the treatment.
The effect of adsorbent dose on COD reduction was estimated by treating 100 ml
of the sample with different doses of adsorbent ranging between 20 to 70 g/l.
The contribution of pH to the COD reduction was investigated starting with
1080 mg/l initial COD concentration, and keeping the adsorbent dose and contact
time at predetermined values. Obviously, the pH values were varied from 1 to 12
using different quantities of the dilute NaOH or HCl solutions. The buffer was
added in the samples and pH was monitored till its desired value was achieved.
The effect of initial COD concentration of the wastewater was analysed by
keeping all other conditions constant and varying the initial COD concentration. The
COD was varied in the range of 200 mg/l to 1200 mg/l. Likewise the experiments
were performed for determining the percent reduction in COD by varying the
agitation speed and size of the adsorbent particles. Discrete values of the agitation
speed are kept between 100 rpm to 800 rpm and the category wise upper limits on
the size of the adsorbent particles as: category A (2.8 mm), B (0.710 mm), C
(0.075 mm) and D (0.053 mm).

3. Results and Discussion

The physico-chemical properties of the wastewater collected from the said drain
are depicted in Table I. It is evident that the domestic wastewater was polluted with
organic load plus the dissolved and suspended matter. Organic load is reflected in
terms of the COD and the BOD values. In the present investigations only reduction
of the COD is discussed. The COD concentration, 1080 mg/l, in the wastewater was substantially higher than that of the permissible limit [100200 mg/l, for
TABLE I
Physico-chemical analysis of domestic wastewater
Parameters

Values

pH
Electrical conductance (mho/cm)
Temperature (C)
Turbidity (Nephalometer Turbidity Unit)
Total solids (mg/l)
Total suspended solids (mg/l)
Total dissolved solids (mg/l)
Chemical oxygen demand (mg/l)
MPN (coliform cells/100 ml)
Biochemical oxygen demand (mg/l)

7.2
3.1 104
20.5
320
1031
341
690
1080
2 109
783

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R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

TABLE II
Important characteristics of commercial activated carbon, brick kiln ash and fly ash
Parameters

Commercial activated carbon

Brick kiln ash

Fly ash

Surface area, m2 /kg

Pore size distribution, %
0.11 nm
12 nm
25 nm
510 nm
1015 nm
1520 nm
2025 nm
2530 nm
Bulk density, kg/m3
Porosity, %
Moisture content, %

11.2 106

5.9 105

7.2 105

84.7
13.8
8.2
4.6
3.3
3.5
3.8
2.1
1.8 106
85
2.00

36.9
14.3
23.3
23.0
19.6
18.4
20.2
10.9
1.28 106
63.8
7.3

58.3
16.3
13.0
13.0
14.8
13.8
13.9
7.8
1.69 106
69.5
6.7

irrigation and horticultural uses according to the Central Pollution Control Board,
India (CPCB norms)].
Characteristics of the commercial activated carbon, brick kiln ash and fly ash
are given in Table II. Surface area and porosity of the commercial activated carbon
are higher than those of the other adsorbents.
A comparison between the commercial activated carbon (CAC), fly ash (FA)
and brick kiln ash (BKA) adsorbents made for the COD reduction is shown in
Figure 1 for increasing time of treatment. Initial COD and pH of the wastewater
were 1080 mg/l and 7.2 respectively for all samples subjected to the treatment.
Maximum of 94.00% reduction in COD is achieved for CAC, but the FA and BKA
could give a maximum reduction in COD of 66.92% and 72.29% respectively. The
BKA adsorbent showed slightly better performance than that of the FA, which
might be attributed to its larger surface area (and hence more number of adsorbing
sites).
We had used the CAC adsorbent in all the experiments for the sake of comparison.
From Figure 1 it can be seen that equilibrium was attained in 250 min, 300 min and
180 min respectively with FA, BKA and CAC adsorbents. As expected, there is
a tendency towards saturation of adsorbent sites as the treatment time progresses.
Difference between the CAC and the ash adsorption capacity can be attributed to
the relatively lesser number of carbonaceous adsorption sites in the ash, since their
carbon content is certainly lesser than that of CAC.
The adsorbent dose was varied to evaluate the maximum possible contribution of
the adsorbent dose to the COD reduction. Figure 2 shows the percent reduction in the
COD with the adsorbent dose. Here the treatment time was kept constant at 180 min

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

39

Figure 1. Effect of treatment time on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon, fly ash and
brick kiln ash adsorbents. Initial COD concentration: 1080 mg/l, adsorbent dose: 40 g/l wastewater,
pH: 7.2, agitation speed: 600 rpm and adsorbent particle size: 2.8 mm.

Figure 2. Effect of adsorbent dose on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon and brick kiln
ash adsorbents. Initial COD concentration: 1080 mg/l, treatment time: for activated carbon 180 min
and for brick kiln ash 300 min, pH: 7.2, agitation speed: 600 rpm and adsorbent particle size: 2.8 mm.

for the CAC and 300 min for the brick kiln ash. Equilibrium reached corresponding
to 45 g/l and 40 g/l dose of BKA and CAC respectively. Correspondingly the COD
reduction for BKA and CAC was 73.34% and 98.46% respectively.
Figure 2 shows the adsorption studies conducted at fixed initial COD concentration and varying adsorbent dose. Freundlich isotherm (Samuel and Aley, 1986)

40

R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

of the form:
x/m = k Ce1/n
are fitted to the measurements. Here, x/m in mg/g is the amount of COD removed
(x) per unit mass of adsorbent (m), Ce in mg/l is equilibrium COD concentration
of aqueous solution, constant k is a measure of adsorption capacity, and 1/n is a
measure of adsorption intensity. The constant 1/n and k are of definite importance
in determining the adsorption capacity of organic pollutants from the domestic
wastewater and reduction of COD by the adsorbents. The slope 1/n is dependent
on the order of the change of COD reduction with the adsorbent dose, while k is
dependent on the extent of removal of COD by the adsorbents.
The Freundlich isotherm corresponding to the experimental measurements for
BKA and CAC and the linear fit to the data plotted on log scales are shown in
Figures 3a and b respectively. Values of the regression coefficient (r 2 ) and goodness

Figure 3. (a) Freundlich plot for COD reduction by brick kiln ash. Initial COD concentration:
1080 mg/l, treatment time: 300 min, pH: 7.2, agitation speed: 600 rpm and adsorbent particle size:
2.8 mm. (b) Freundlich plot for COD reduction by commercial activated carbon. Initial COD concentration: 1080 mg/l, treatment time: 180 min, pH: 7.2, agitation speed: 600 rpm and adsorbent particle
size: 2.8 mm.

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

41

of fit (p) have been calculated from the linear fit. Based on the fit, the respective
values of the slope 1/n, intercept on y-axis k, regression coefficient r 2 and goodness
of fit p for the BKA are 0.56, 0.799, 0.98 and 0.049 and those for the CAC are
0.47, 6.768, 0.98 and 0.045 respectively. The CAC and BKA have comparable
values of 1/n, but the value of k (adsorption constant) for brick kiln ash is, as
expected, substantially low in comparison to that of the CAC. This is applicable to
our parameter range for adsorbent dose of 20 g/l and higher.
Figure 4 shows a comparison of the adsorption capacity of BKA and CAC with
varying pH values. These experiments were conducted at constant initial COD
concentration of 1080 mg/l and the pH was varied by adding alkali or acid, as
discussed in section 2.2.3. The results indicated that the COD reduction is 76.72%
at pH 5 for BKA and 98.85% at pH 2 for CAC. It is evident from Figure 4, that the
CAC has better adsorption at lower pH and BKA has maximum at pH 5, adsorption
is better for both the adsorbents in the domain of acidic pH. The COD reduction with
increase of pH in case of CAC gradually decreases from pH 2 to 12 and in case of
BKA the COD reduction first increases from pH 1 to 5 and then decreases at higher
pH. It is well known that the concentration of H+ and that of OH is enhanced with
the increase of pH. These relatively low mass species have higher mobilities than
those of the COD causing complex organic molecules and will compete with the
organic molecules to occupy the adsorption sites. Drop in the percent COD reduction
is on account of the diminishing surface area of the adsorbent. In case of BKA, the
enhancement in the percent COD reduction in the acidic medium (lower pH values)

Figure 4. Effect of pH on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon and brick kiln ash
adsorbents. Initial COD concentration: 1080 mg/l, treatment time: for activated carbon 180 min and
for brick kiln ash 300 min, adsorbent dose for activated carbon 40 g/l and for brick kiln ash 45 g/l,
agitation speed: 600 rpm and adsorbent particle size: 2.8 mm.

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R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

Figure 5. Structural changes in sites of adsorbent surface due to pH variation of the wastewater.

may result from the ion-ion neutralization interactions of negatively charged oxide
sites by positively charged radicals. Though we have not characterized the BKA, the
ash resulting from the fossil-fuel combustion is normally rich in inorganic oxides.
The hydroxylate surfaces of these oxides in aqueous medium are also reported (Das
and Patnaik, 2001) to undergo amphoteric dissociation, as is given in Figure 5, and
contribute to the adsorption process. Our observations on COD reduction with pH
are similar to those reported by Mott et al. (1992); and Liskowitz et al. (1980). It
is worth stating again that the pH of the wastewater was decreased by adding 0.1
N H2 SO4 , which will amount to additional cost of the process. It is, therefore, not
so attractive to lower the pH below its usual value.
The effect of initial COD concentration of the solution on the percent COD
reduction is shown in Figure 6. Like the earlier cases, the adsorption on the FA and
the BKA was compared with that on the CAC. The percent COD reduction per unit

Figure 6. Effect of initial COD concentration on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon,
fly ash and brick kiln ash adsorbents. Treatment time: for activated carbon 180 min, fly ash 250 min
and for brick kiln ash 300 min, adsorbent dose for activated carbon 40 g/l, for fly ash 60 g/l and for
brick kiln ash 45 g/l, pH: for activated carbon 2, for fly ash 2 and for brick kiln ash 5, agitation speed:
600 rpm and adsorbent particle size: 2.8 mm.

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

43

weight of ash and activated carbon was found to increase with increase in the initial
COD concentration. The percent COD reduction by FA, BKA and CAC varied
from 65.37% to 81.39%, 63.3% to 76.4% and 91.2% to 98.9% respectively in the
range of our experiments. Reduction of COD, in general, has been found to increase
with the increase in the initial COD concentration. This was expected because the
resistance to the uptake of adsorbate from solution decreases with the increasing
adsorbate concentration. The rate of adsorption increases because of the increasing
driving force. But, beyond 1100 mg/l of initial COD concentration, the curves reach
saturation values for the respective adsorbents. It was as per expectation since at
higher COD concentration the adsorption sites start saturating.
Agitation speed of the sample shaker was varied between 100 to 800 rpm to
investigate its effect on the adsorption. There was a very slow trend for the % COD
reduction with the agitation speed. Maximum COD reduction was observed around
600 rpm for all the three adsorbents as is shown in Figure 7. But at higher agitation
speeds the loosely attached molecules might re-enter into the adsorbate, lowering
the % COD reduction. Therefore, we had kept the agitation speed at 600 rpm.
The adsorbent particle size has significant influence on the kinetics of adsorption
due to the change in number of adsorption sites and the surface area. Figure 8 represents the effect of the size of adsorbent particles on the percent COD reduction. For
FA, BKA and CAC, particle size range was similar and they were segregated in four
categories with upper limit on their size as category A (2.8 mm), B (0.71 mm),
C (0.075 mm) and D (0.053 mm). Obviously, the percent COD reduction for
FA, BKA and CAC was maximum at particle size of category D. The reductions
corresponding to the adsorbents FA, BKA and CAC were, 87.84%, 83.22% and

Figure 7. Effect of agitation speed on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon, brick kiln
ash and fly ash. Initial COD concentration: 1080 mg/l, treatment time: 250 min for fly ash, 300 min
for brick kiln ash and 180 min for CAC, adsorbent dose: 60 g/l for fly ash, 45 g/l for brick kiln ash
and 40 g/l for CAC, pH: 2 for fly ash, 5 for brick kiln ash and 2 for CAC, adsorbent particle size:
2.8 mm.

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R. DEVI AND R. P. DAHIYA

Figure 8. Effect of adsorbent particle size on % COD reduction by commercial activated carbon, fly
ash and brick kiln ash adsorbents. Treatment time for activated carbon 180 min, for fly ash 250 min
and for brick kiln ash 300 min, adsorbent dose for activated carbon 40 g/l, for fly ash 60 g/l and for
brick kiln ash 45 g/l, pH for activated carbon 2, for fly ash 2 and for brick kiln ash 5 and agitation
speed is 600 rpm.

99.35% respectively. For larger particle size of category A, the respective reduction
was 75.31%, 70.31% and 95.67% with FA, BKA and CAC. It is, therefore, as per
expectations that the extent of adsorption decreases with increasing particle size. In
general, the intra particle mass transfer effect for a given particle will increase with
the increasing particle size. However, the surface area per unit mass of adsorbent
as well as diffusional transport might be larger in case of smaller particles, which
increases the adsorption rate. Rao et al. (2000) have observed similar effects for
the COD removal using activated carbon.

4. Conclusions
The fly ash and brick kiln ash are the promising adsorbents for the treatment of
domestic wastewater to adsorb the COD determining organic compounds. The adsorption experiments conducted under various conditions by changing the treatment
time (30300 min), adsorbent dose (2070 g/l), pH value (112) of the wastewater, initial COD concentration (2001200 mg/l), agitation speed (100800 rpm) and
adsorbent particle size (2.8 mm, 0.71 mm, 0.075 mm and 0.053 mm) have
shown that maximum of 87.84%, 83.22% and 99.35% COD can be removed using the fly ash, brick kiln ash and commercially activated carbon respectively.
The smaller size particles with larger surface area give better performance for the

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD) REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WASTEWATER

45

adsorption. Adsorbents containing higher carbon content have given better performance in the COD reduction. Though the commercially activated carbon is superior,
both the fly ash and brick kiln ash are available free of cost as discarded materials.
They show a reasonable potential to treat the domestic wastewater for decentralised
applications in rural areas and small towns.

Acknowledgements
Dr. Rani Devi is thankful to Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, for the
award of financial assistance. Authors are thankful to Dr. A. K. Mital, Department
of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi, for giving access to the laboratory facilities.

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