Improvement of the flocculation process in water treatment by using moringa oleifera seeds extract

Abstract

-Water scarcity encourages researchers to keep working on natural coagulant agents such as Moringa oleifera seed extract, that could be used even in developing countries. With this scope, this investigation is focused on the optimization of certain parameters affecting the use of this coagulant product in the clarification of real surface water. Acidic pH levels seem to enhance the coagulation performance and the turbidity removal increases as the stirring period becomes longer (up to 95% with 40 min). The optimum stirring rate is identified as 80 rpm. Water clarified with this optimum coagulation and flocculation process is turbidity-competitive with other well known coagulants and flocculants and its quality is inside standard ranges for clarified water. No microbial growth is observed within the first 72 hours after the coagulant trials.

Evaluating coagulant activity of locally available <i>Syzygium cumini</i>, <i>Artocarpus heterophyllus</i> and <i>Moringa oleifera</i> for treatment of community drinking water, Uganda

“…Results for protein, ash, dry matter and fibre revealed characteristics similar to those reported by other authors (Akinmutimi, 2006;Kalibbala 2007;Ndyomugyenyi, 2008;Pritchard et al, 2009;Rahman et al, 2009;Sodamade et al, 2013;Olagbemide and Alikwe, 2014). The study of coagulant activity on Moringa (Moringa oleifera), Java plum (Syzygium cumini) and Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) revealed promising level of turbidity removal from dirty water that is comparable to previous studies on Moringa and other plant seeds (Kalibbala 2007;Amagloh and Benang, 2009;Preston et al, 2010;Ali et al, 2010;Wilson and Andrews, 2011;Nand et al, 2012;Sanchez-Martin et al, 2012;Kabore et al, 2015). This can be attributed to probable similarity in the turbidity removal agents in the seeds, known to be cationic proteins with pI >9.6 (Ghebremichael et al, 2005).Java plum and Jackfruit seeds demonstrated good protein contents (Table 1) and therefore would be expected to exhibit evident coagulant activity as in Moringa oleifera that was confirmed by this study.…”

“…Although the use of the natural coagulant treated water may be unsafe from 18 hours after treatment because of possible bacterial regrowth (Preston et al, 2010;Sanchez-Martin et al, 2012;Kabore et al, 2015), pre-treatment such as solar water disinfection (SODIS) is known to make such water safer (Wilson and Andrews, 2011). In Africa where there is plenty solar radiation the poor communities could put their water in the sun for some hours as a pre-treatment method before the application of coagulants.…”

Potential effect of chemical and thermal treatment on the Kinetics, equilibrium, and thermodynamic studies for atrazine biosorption by the Moringa oleifera pods

“…Among the many promising materials are the Moringa oleifera fruits (seeds, seed husks, and pod) which are representative of this kind of natural product. Moringa oleifera grows rapidly in India, the Sudan, Southern Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean Islands, and South America and can be used as a food crop and a source of vegetable oil, apart from their seeds as coagulant in water treatment …”

Water temperature and flocculant concentration influence on the surface water clarification with process modeling

“…2013. u procesu koagulacije/flokulacije može provesti i pomoću nove generacije tzv. kompozitnih koagulanata [7], potom prirodnih biljnih sredstava na bazi tanina [8] ili ekstrakta iz sjemena tropskog drveta Moringa oleifera, koji značajno ubrzava proces [9]. Ipak, aluminijum-sulfat još uvijek slovi za najčešće korišten koagulant, kako zbog svoje dostupnosti tako i zbog prihvatljive cijene.…”