Plant-Based Tacca leontopetaloides Biopolymer Flocculant (TBPF) Produced High Removal of Turbidity, TSS, and Color for Leachate Treatment

Abstract

Wastewater treatment is crucial to ensure a sustainable supply of clean water, especially for human use. Natural flocculants can overcome the disadvantages of chemical flocculants in wastewater treatment. This study proposes a new natural-based flocculant from the Tacca leontopetaloides plant for leachate treatment. The plant tuber was processed through gelatinization to produce Tacca leontopetaloides biopolymer flocculant (TBPF). The characterization of TBPF for flocculant properties was investigated, and the performance of TBPF on leachate treatment using a standard jar test procedure was examined at different pH values of leachate and TBPF dosages. The characteristics of TBPF in terms of amylose/amylopectin fraction, viscosity, and zeta potential were 26:74, 0.037–0.04 Pa·s, and −13.14 mV, respectively. The presence of –COOH and –OH structure in TBPF indicates the flocculant properties. TBPF reduced the turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), and color from 218 NTU, 214 mg/L, 14201 PtCo to 45.8–54.5 NTU, 19.3–19.9 mg/L, and 852–994 PtCo, respectively, using 240 mg/L of TBPF at pH 3. These results show a high potential of the new plant-based TBPF for leachate treatment and water industry applications.

Plant-Based Tacca leontopetaloides Biopolymer Flocculant (TBPF) Produced High Removal of Heavy Metal Ions at Low Dosage

“…The optimum pH, TBPF dosage, and initial metal ion concentration were kept constant while the initial TBPF concentration was varied at 3%, 5%, and 10%. The preparation and characterization of TBPF was carried out from our previous study [9]. Next, the effect of metal ion removal was examined by varying the metal ion concentration from 1.5 to 3.0 mg/L at fixed pH, dosage, and initial TBPF concentration.…”

“…Like other starches, Tacca leontopetaloides biopolymer flocculant (TBPF) consists mainly of polysaccharides of the monosaccharide, alpha-D-(+) glucopyranose type. In our previous study [9], TBPF has a amylose/amylopectin polymer mixture, viscosity, and zeta potential of 26:74, 0.037-0.04 Pa•s, and −13.14 mV, respectively, which helped in flocculating activity. During isolation process, the loss of birefringence and crystalline order in starch occurred due to the breaking of the double helix in the crystalline region and the leaching of amylose.…”

“…Tacca leontopetaloides biopolymer flocculant (TBPF) was prepared following from our previous study [9]. A 3 g (3%) of Tacca starch was immersed in 80 • C of 100 mL distilled water.…”

“…The coagulation-flocculation experiments were carried out based on our previous study [9]. The effects of pH, initial concentrations of TBPF and heavy metal solution, and TBPF dosage on the heavy metal removal were determined using the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) method.…”

“…The presence of -COOH and -OH structures in TBPF was also identified at the polymer adsorption active side. This reduced the turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), and color of the leachate from 218 nephelometric turbidity unit(NTU), 214 mg/L, 14,201 PtCo to 45.8-54.5 NTU, 19.3-19.9 mg/L, and 852-994 PtCo, respectively, using 240 mg/L of TBPF at pH 3 [9]. However, the removal of heavy metals was not examined.…”