Development of model in removal of phosphorus using natural coagulants

ABSTRACT

In this paper, an endeavour is made to study the feasibility of natural coagulants like Cicer arietinum, Dolichos lablab, Maize seeds, Moringa oleifera seeds, Okra seeds, Orange peel, Peanut seeds, Roselle seeds, Sapodilla seeds and Strychonos potatorum seeds on the reduction of phosphorous content from Industrial wastewater. The batch coagulation test was done to identify the optimum coagulant dosage, pH level at which the removal efficiency is high, mixing time and floc settling time required for the removal of phosphorous in the wastewater. A chart was plotted between the removal efficiency of all the chosen coagulants corresponding to the dosage, pH, mixing time and settling time. The removal percentage of phosphorous is more for Moringa oleifera seeds with 93%, followed by Strychonos potatorum seeds with 89% and Sapodilla seeds with 83% demonstrates the minimum phosphorous removal from the wastewater as 37%. Moringa oleifera seeds can be utilised as an effective coagulant for the removal of phosphorous from the wastewater. The maximum percentage removal efficiency of phosphorous was achieved by Moringa oleifera seeds for the coagulant dosage 5.8 mL, pH of 7, mixing time of 30 minutes, settling time of 30 minute and the final phosphorus concentration of 306.1 mg/L was achieved. Also, the corresponding values of pH, optimum coagulant dosage, mixing time and settling time for the phosphorus removal vary according to each chosen coagulants. Based on this study, a model was developed in accordance with the coagulation dosage and concentration of phosphorus. The overall regression accuracy of the Langmuir hypothesis model was identified as r² = 0.94.

KEYWORDS:

• Natural coagulant
• effective coagulant
• industrial wastewater
• phosphorous removal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).