Development of indigenous Bio-coagulant for Turbidity Removal

Abstract

Coagulants are widely used for the removal of turbidity in the form of suspended and colloidal material. Aluminum and ferric salts are cheap and the most widely used coagulants in water and wastewater treatment all over the world. In recent years the development of plant based natural coagulants have been more focused by researchers because of less production of after treatment sludge, biodegradability and health friendly nature. Natural coagulants have been developed from Nirmali seed, maize, mesquite bean, Cactus latifaria, Cassia angustifolia seed, chestnut, acorn and leguminous species. At present nearly 0.1 million tonnes of date pits per annum are disposed off having no use, which is causing the environmental pollution in the shape of solid waste. The date pit is treated and converted into natural coagulant, which can be used as a green alternative to the inorganic coagulants. In the present research work Bio-coagulant is prepared from date pits, which were dried, ground and sieved and physically treated. Various factors including turbidity concentration, dose of crude extract, mixing time, mixing speed and pH were investigated. The highest removal efficiency was observed as 86% when pH was 13 and crude extract dose was 1ml/L. The efficiency graph uniformly increased as pH range increased. Further study is needed to enhance its uses and remaining parameters can be investigated such as COD removal, temperature, in order to increase applicability.