Potential of Moringa Oleifera Seed as a Natural Adsorbent for Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The present study deals with the appropriateness of the coagulation process using natural coagulant Moringa oleifera seed. Natural coagulants are useful for the treatment of wastewater because of its sustainability, cost-effectiveness, non-toxicity and lesser quantity of sludge formation. M. oleifera seed having a chemical composition of polypeptides having 6 amino acids like arginine acid, methionine acid, glutamic acid, phenylalanine, threonine, and histidine. M. oleifera is also known as a cationic polyelectrolyte and having molecular weight 6,000 to16,000 Dalton. The main objective of research work is the application of the M. oleifera seed as a natural adsorbent to treat synthetic dairy wastewater. The effects of pH, agitation time, the dose of sorbent and efficacy of M. oleifera seeds kernel for turbidity removal was assessed. M. oleifera seed eliminates turbidity 95 % and colour 94 % using 0.22 gm pod powder, and 0.2 L of 1.0 g/L synthetic dairy wastewater. Naturally dried M. oleifera seeds remove turbidity 95 %, sundried seeds remove turbidity 52 % and oven-dried seeds 45 %. As naturally dried M. oleifera pod having more surface area for adsorption and inter-particulate bridging which extract the extra active ingredients. pH range between 5 and 8 is more suitable to degrade the turbidity and colour. It is concluded that in the presence of an aqueous soluble cationic coagulant protein has great potential to remove the turbidity and colour of wastewater.