Magnetic Field Application and its Potential in Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems

Abstract

This review is intended to critically convey information on water magnetization and to discuss each application that employs magnetic field as an aid in wastewater treatment. The magnetically assisted wastewater treatments are presented and compared in terms of performances with those of conventional treatment systems. The advantages and limitations of magnetic field application are discussed in order to evaluate their environmental benefits. The main conclusion from the literature review is that magnetic field application has the potential to improve the physical performance in terms of solid-liquid separation mainly through aggregation of colloidal particles. The application is also significant in influencing the biological properties through the improvement of bacterial activity. Both of these enhancements lead towards increase in efficiency of the water and wastewater treatment performances.

Keywords:

• Magnetic field
• water and wastewater treatment
• solid-liquid separation
• aggregation
• performance efficiency

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the financial support (Project No. 4S032). We are also grateful to Professor Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Professor Gustaf Olsson, and Dr. Azmi Aris for advice given and rectification towards the article completion.