Influence of Homemade Coagulants on the Characteristics of Surface Water Treatment: Experimental Study

Influence of Homemade Coagulants on the Characteristics of Surface Water Treatment: Experimental Study

Pamila Ramesp, Research Scholar, Dept. Of Civil,

B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India,

Dr. Vasanthi Padmanaban2

Professor, Dept. of Civil,

1. S. Abdur Rahman University.

   R. Sivacoumar3,

   Scientist F, Senior Principal Scientist, NEERI, Chennai

   Abstract- The main objective of this work is to evaluate the coagulation efficiencies of natural coagulants on certain physio chemical characteristics like turbidity, pH, Colour and Total solids. In this study five different powdered coagulants obtained from Drumstick seeds Tamarind seeds, Neem seeds, Banana peel and sweet potato were used and compared against commercial coagulants like Alum and Lime. The best coagulant performance is found by comparing the optimum coagulant dosage, settling time, rate of settling, removal efficiency, clarity &cost. Application of these natural coagulants is recommended for rural people who rely on low quality water sources

   Keywords- Coagulation, Natural Coagulants, Turbidity, Removal Efficiency, Treatment Process

   1. INTRODUCTION

      Poor management and over exploitation of water resources denies the access of safe drinking water and safe sanitation particularly in remote areas which is about more than 20% of people according to WHO (2009 survey). As a result,

      1.8 billion people die annually from diarrheal diseases. Taking care of the environment and mankind is a global challenge, water management and waste water treatment is also a part of it. Most commonly faced problems in waste water treatment is due to pH, turbidity, color and total solids. There are many treatment technologies available, but coagulation is considered to be better as compared to other methods because of its ease of operation and simplicity in design (Gdoura et al.,2012). In conventional practice coagulants used in water treatment are lime and alum. But there are some health hazards arisen like Alzheimers disease and neurological disorders etc. (B.coco-Rivero et al.,2013). To overcome those disadvantages researchers search for new coagulants derived from natural products. Coagulation with natural coagulants is in practice since 2000 BC. In the recent years, natural products used for water treatment are obtained from plant origin namely Moringa oleifera seed husks (pollard et al., 1995,B natia et al.,) lead removal from Banana peel (suhartini et al., 2013&Gusto et al., 2011) Okra seeds for

      removal of turbidity (Muhammad et al., 2013) use of Hibiscus & C.tridens weeds for water treatment (Jodi et al., 2012). The aim of this present study is to assess the effectiveness of various agricultural wastes (or) by products for water treatment.

   2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

      Water sample is collected as shown in Fig:1 from a pond near Chengalpet district in Tamil Nadu. Characterisation is done as per the standard procedure and the results are shown in table 1. The optimum dosage test is done by using Jar test apparatus as shown in Fig:2.

      Figure – 1 Water Sample before treatment

      .

      Figure – 2 Conventional jar test apparatus

      Table 1.Characteristics of water Sample

      No	Parameter	Value
      1.	pH	5.49
      2.	Total solids	4300 mg/l
      3.	Turbidity	62.4 NTU
      4.	Suspended solids	600 mg/l

      In order to investigate the coagulating efficiency of plant materials on the characteristics of water sample, powdered Banana peel, Tamarind seed, Neem seed, Moringa olifera seeds and Sweet potato were prepared and the water samples were treated and left to settle for different time periods. After each experimental period the samples were analysed again and compared with the standards.

   3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

      1. Turbidity

         The jar test experiments were conducted on water sample with different amount of coagulant dosages and results are tabulated in Table 2.It was clear from the results that the amount of coagulant dose increased, the turbidity reduction also increases. Fig 3 shows the results of different dosages of powdered coagulants along with the Alum-Lime during jar tests. Before treatment the raw sample turbidity was found to be 64 NTU (Medium turbidity) it is found that from Fig 3,the turbidity reduced from 64 NTU to 1NTU corresponding to different dosages of powdered coagulants. From the results it was clear that Neem seeds (Azadirachata indica) shows maximum removal efficiency. The above experimental study also revealed that increase in dosage did not significantly increase the removal efficiency.

         Table 2. coagulant dosage Vs turbidity removal efficiency

         100

         99

         98

         97

         96

         95

         94

         93

         92

         91

         Moringa Olifera

         Ipomoea batatas

         Azadirachta indica

         Tamarindus Indica

         Banana peel

         Dosage mg/l

         alum&lime

         30

         15 20 25

         % turbidity removal efficiency

         Figure 3 plot of turbidity removal efficiency Vs coagulant dosage

      2. pH

         The pH ranges from 6.4 to 7.4 as shown in table 3 which shows neutral condition of the polluted water. From the results, it can be seen that there is not much significant alteration in pH values with various types of coagulants. Therefore, it is obvious that these natural coagulants helps in maintaining the desirable parameters (Patale et al., 2010).

         COAGULANTS	DOSAGE mg/l	pH
         Banana peel	15	6.52
         	20	6.51
         	25	6.52
         	30	6.43
         Moringa olifera	15	7.11
         	20	7.15
         	25	7.13
         	30	7.13
         Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato)	15	7.32
         	20	7.20
         	25	7.31
         	30	6.80
         Azadirachta indica (neem seed)	15	7.1
         	20	7.1
         	25	6.83
         	30	6.79
         Tamarindus indica (tamarind seed)	15	6.7
         	20	6.8
         	25	6.72
         	30	6.81
         Alum and lime	15	7.8
         	20	7.6
         	25	7.8
         	30	7.8

         Table 3. coagulant dosage Vs pH

         COAGULANTS	DOSAGE mg/l	%REMOVAL EFFICIENCY
         Banana peel	15	97
         	20	95
         	25	94
         	30	94
         Mringa olifera	15	95
         	20	97
         	25	97
         	30	96
         Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato)	15	98
         	20	98
         	25	98
         	30	97
         Azadirachta indica (neem seed)	15	99
         	20	99
         	25	98
         	30	98
         Tamarindus indica (tamarind seed)	15	95
         	20	95
         	25	94
         	30	94
         Alum / lime	15	94
         	20	94
         	25	95
         	30	95

      3. Total solids

      Table 4 shows the TSS concentration during various dosages of different adsorbents. It is found that the TSS concentration gradually reduced with dosages of 15, 20, 25 and 30 mg/l respectively. Figure 4 compares the removal of TSS using various natural coagulants with the conventional alum and lime. From the results, it is clear that natural coagulants are also efficient in reducing TSS from the raw water (Murali Mohan et al., 2014).

      COAGULANTS	DOSAGE mg/l	TOTAL SOLIDS
      Banana peel	15	3700
      	20	3680
      	25	3650
      	30	3700
      Moringa olifera	15	3550
      	20	3650
      	25	3600
      	30	3650
      Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato)	15	3600
      	20	3640
      	25	3590
      	30	3680
      Azadirachta indica (neem seed)	15	3550
      	20	3540
      	25	3570
      	30	3600
      Tamarindus indica (tamarind seed)	15	3690
      	20	3680
      	25	3650
      	30	3700
      Alum and lime	15	3600
      	20	3650
      	25	3520
      	30	3600

      Table 4. coagulant dosage Vs total solids

      3750

      3700

      3650

      3600

      3550

      3500

      3450

      3400

      Banana peel

      15 20 25 30

      Dosage mg/l

      Moringa olifera Tamarindus indica Ipomoea batatas Azardiracht a indica alum&lime

      Total Solids mg/l

      Figure 4 plot of coagulant dosage Vs total solids

   4. CONCLUSION

The aim of this present study is to assess the effectiveness of various agricultural wastes as natural coagulants for surface water treatment. In the present study, sample of pond water is examined for the various characteristics like turbidity, pH and TSS with natural coagulants like banana peel , Azadirachta indica (neem seed), Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato), Moringa olifera, Tamarindus indica (tamarind seed) and compared with alum and lime.

Ranking is usually done to determine the best coagulant based on the Removal efficiency, Settling rate, Clarity, Availability and cost of the materials. Neem seeds displayed better results and the other coagulants were ranked as follows.

Neem seed > banana peel > Moringa olifera > sweet potato

> tamarind seed

This method is very economical compare to chemical treatment since they are naturally available, very cheap and biodegradable. Low maintenance and no skilled labour are required. They are non toxic and non corrosive. The studies presented showed that Neem seeds could be employed as natural coagulants for surface water treatment.

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