A Laboratory Study for the Treatment of Turbidity and Total Hardness Bearing Synthetic Wastewater/Ground Water Using Moringa oleifera

Abstract

The coagulation performance of Moringa oleifera act as natural macromolecular coagulant was studied by the jar test. The Moringa oleifera coagulation attained comparatively high turbidity removal efficiency and water with turbidity less than 5 NTU could be obtained from 100 to 500 NTU. The ground water sample was collected from Chennai, Chepauk. The water sample containing bicarbonate (HCO3), Calcium (Ca2+) and Magnesium (Mg2+) hardness. The Moringa oleifera seed powder and Moringa oleifera (MO) that was extracted with 0.5M Sodium chloride solution (MO - NaCl) was used to reduce the turbidity and hardness of the ground water sample. Maximum reduction of hardness was attained at basic pH 8-11. The adsorption equilibrium was attained at short contact time of 2 hrs maximum uptake of hardness was 76 mg/l. The flocs formed using Moringa oleifera were observed to be bigger and to sediment faster when compared with flocs formed using alum. Moringa oleifera sludge volume produced was less than other methods. The comparison to the surface morphology structure of dried seed powder and total suspended solids were also studied.