Nuttaphon Phuaprasert.. Investigation of moringa oleifera used as natural coagulant in water treatment process. Master's Degree(Environmental and Water Resources Engineering). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2015.
Investigation of moringa oleifera used as natural coagulant in water treatment process
Abstract:
The present study was mainly aimed at using Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) as a coagulant and evaluating its effectiveness as compared to alum, as well as assessing the use of M. oleifera as co-coagulant along with alum in water treatment process. Actual raw water, collected from intake of Bangkhen Water Treatment Plant (WTP), located in Bangkok, Thailand, was used for this study. The effectiveness of M. oleifera as a coagulant or co-coagulant was evaluated via jar tests. The efficiency of M. oleifera extraction by using different solvents including distilled water, 0.5M NaCl, 0.5M NaOH was investigated. Distilled water was found to provide a high turbidity removal with no change in coagulated water quality, e.g. conductivity, pH and alkalinity; thus, it was the most suitable solvent for M. oleifera extraction. It was also found that the optimum parameters for the coagulation process using M. oleifera extraction, including the slow mixing speed and the sedimentation time were 50 rpm and 45 min, respectively; whereas for alum the optimum slow mixing speed and the sedimentation time were 50 rpm and 15 min, respectively. Moreover, the optimum dosage of M. oleifera for treating low and medium turbidity raw water was found to be 80 and 70 mg/L, respectively; whereas for alum the optimum dosage to treat low to medium turbidity raw water was 20 mg/L. In terms of turbidity removal as well as reduction in organic matter, expressed as UV absorbance at 254 nm, alum outperformed M. oleifera. However, pH and alkalinity of treated water coagulated with alum were significantly affected. In addition, the coagulation process performance of the M. oleifera used along with alum as a co-coagulant was investigated for different dosages of alum. The results showed that a combination of 80 mg/L of M. oleifera along with 5 mg/L of alum was enough to improve the efficiency of turbidity removal by reducing the sedimentation time by almost half as compared to that with M. oleifera alone. In addition, various physic-chemical parameters, including turbidity, pH, chloride, sulfate, heavy metals, etc., were analyzed in the water after being treated by M. oleifera, alum, and the combination of two. The values of all the parameters were considerably lower than WHO guidelines for drinking water quality. Moreover, due to some concern about increased organic matter in treated water with M. oleifera as a coagulant or co-coagulant, the formation potential of trihalomethanes (THMs) were also evaluated and were also found to be lower than WHO guidelines for drinking water quality. Based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that although M. oleifera seemed to be less efficient as compared with alum in terms of dosage and sedimentation time, it could be used as an effective natural coagulant along with a small dosage of alum as co-coagulant in water treatment process.