Treatment of waste emulsion using coagulation method

Abstract

Waste emulsion is one of the major toxic wastes that are generated from the metal processing industry. Emulsions are commonly used in the metal processing production as emulsified coolant and in power plant as lubricating oil. This paper presents a research to suggest the best coagulant in treating waste emulsion from manufacturing plant via coagulation method. Chitosan and bio-solvent will represent the natural coagulants, alum and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) will represent the industrial coagulant. Jar Test apparatus was used to treat the waste emulsion. It will be conducted in a batch test with a row of six beakers. One jar will be used as a control and the other five will be of different dosages of coagulant at 150 rpm of mixing rate, 30 minutes of mixing time and at room temperature. From the results, PAC showed to be the best coagulant with 82.29%, 95.45%, 99.95%, 96.4%, and 53% removal of COD, BOD O&G, TSS, and Turbidity, respectively, at a pH of 3.7 and minimum dosage of 2wt%. In conclusion, the PAC managed to break the oil and water bonding from the waste emulsion. Thus, it was suitable to treat the industrial waste emulsion.