Water Treatment Using Natural Coagulant and Electrocoagulation Process: A Comparison Study.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Water Treatment Technologies
• Applied Chemistry

Background:

• Surface water pollution poses a significant threat to water usability.
• Conventional water treatment methods often require optimization for efficiency.
• Natural coagulants like Moringa Oleifera (MO) offer sustainable treatment alternatives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of Moringa Oleifera (MO), electrocoagulation (EC), and MO-assisted EC (MOAEC) for surface water treatment.
• To compare the removal efficiencies of key pollutants including Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), phosphate, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and color.
• To investigate the impact of operating parameters on treatment performance.

Main Methods:

• Experimental investigation of three water treatment methods: MO, EC, and MOAEC.
• Optimization of operating parameters: pH, coagulant dosage, reaction time, current, and settling time.
• Quantification of pollutant removal using standard water quality analysis techniques.

Main Results:

• MO and EC achieved high removal rates for various pollutants, with EC showing higher efficiency for COD, BOD, TDS, TSS, and color.
• MOAEC demonstrated superior performance, achieving up to 97.0% TDS removal and high efficiencies for other parameters.
• MO exhibited higher phosphate removal compared to EC and MOAEC, while MOAEC generally outperformed MO and EC for most pollutants.

Conclusions:

• The electrocoagulation process and MOAEC are highly effective for removing COD, BOD, TDS, TSS, and color from surface water.
• Moringa Oleifera is particularly effective for phosphate removal.
• MOAEC presents a promising, efficient, and potentially sustainable approach for comprehensive surface water treatment.