Treatment of sugar beet extraction juice stillage by natural coagulants extracted from common bean

Abstract

Distillery wastewaters have a great pollution potential, and pollution caused by them is one of the most critical environmental issues. This study is concerned with the coagulation efficiency of a new, environmental friendly, natural coagulant extracted from common bean seeds in the primary treatment of distillery wastewater in the bioethanol production from sugar beet juice. Active coagulation components were extracted from ground seeds of common bean with 0.5 mol/L NaCl. The obtained raw extract was used as a coagulant. The coagulation efficiency was measured by jar test at different pH values of wastewater, and a decrease in organic matter content was determined. The experiments confirmed that natural coagulant from common bean could be successfully used for the treatment of extraction juice distillery wastewater. The highest coagulation efficiencies were achieved at the pH 5.2 with a coagulant dose of 30 mL/L, and at the pH 8.5 with a coagulant dose of 5 mL/L, and they were 64.71% and 68.75% respectively. These encouraging results indicate that natural coagulant from common bean seeds is a potential alternative to conventional chemical coagulant/flocculant agents for treatment of wastewaters.[Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 43005]

Keywords

• Natural coagulants
• common bean
• distillery wastewater
• organic matter removal