K Kesava Rao

IISc, Bengaluru

K Kesava Rao is a Retired Professor from Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He received his PhD in 1982 from University of Houston. He was a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IISc from 1983–2021. His research interests are granular flow and defluoridation of drinking water. K Kesava Rao was elected Fellow of IASc in 1992.

K Kesava Rao

Session 1A: Special Lecture

Basudeb Datta, Kolkata

Defluoridation of Drinking Water

Defluoridation refers to the removal of excess fluoride from water. Water and food are the main sources of fluoride ingested by people and animals. Excess fluoride intake over a prolonged period leads to a disease called fluorosis that affects many people in India and other countries. During the past eight decades, various methods such as coagulation, adsorption, reverse osmosis, solar distillation, and electrocoagulation have been used for defluoridation, but every method has drawbacks. Following a brief discussion of fluorosis and methods to combat it, some attempts to treat the rejected water from a reverse osmosis unit installed by the government at Yellampalli village will be described. Results related to rainwater harvesting will also be presented.