Sponge-mediated Moringa Oleifera seeds as a natural coagulant in surface water treatment

Abstract

Moringa Oleifera seeds (MOS) coagulant has been used as a coagulation agent in water purification. In developing countries, usage of MOS addresses many advantages namely eco-friendly, biodegradable, available and cost-effective coagulant, resulting in a powerful alternative to chemical coagulants. This research revealed the positive effect of MOS with the aid of sponge at different operational conditions and showed a great influence in the purification efficiency without any observed clogging of sponge pores or bad smell emission. Supplementation of the sponge improved the purification efficiency in terms of turbidity and UV254 substances removal from 96% and 72% to be 99% and 93%, respectively with reduced MOS coagulant from 500 to 150 mg/L, respectively. Finally, response surface methodology (RSM) has been employed to get the optimum operational conditions for a residual turbidity value less than 1.0 NTU, which occurred at MOS dose of 250 mg/L and pH value of 6.15 after 12.17 minutes of treatment.

Keywords

• natural coagulant
• moringa oleifera
• coagulation
• oil-extraction
• response surface methodology (rsm)