Optimized Use of Ferric Chloride and Sesbania Seed Gum (SSG) as Sustainable Coagulant Aid for Turbidity Reduction in Drinking Water Treatment

Siong-Chin Chua, Fai-Kait Chong, M. A. Malek, Muhammad Raza Ul Mustafa, Norli Ismail, Wawan Sujarwo, Jun-Wei Lim and Yeek-Chia Ho
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Siong-Chin Chua: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Fai-Kait Chong: Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
M. A. Malek: Institute of Sustainable Energy (ISE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia
Muhammad Raza Ul Mustafa: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Norli Ismail: School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Wawan Sujarwo: Ethnobiology Research Group, Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong 16911, West Java, Indonesia
Jun-Wei Lim: Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Yeek-Chia Ho: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: The growing global concern with environmental issues has raised the interest in the research into natural biopolymers as a coagulant aid in order to reduce the use of inorganic coagulants. This paper investigated the feasibility of sesbania seed gum (SSG) as a plant-based coagulant aid and ferric chloride as a coagulant in drinking water treatment. Acid extraction method marked the highest and most promising extraction yield at 20.8%, as compared to other extraction methods. Further, the SSG extracted carried a weak negative charge of −3.02 mV, which is classified as a near neutral coagulant aid. Hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups, which aid in coagulation–flocculation, were found in the SSG. These physiochemical analyses results evinced good characteristics of SSG as a coagulant aid. On the other hand, response surface methodology (RSM) with three-factor Box–Behnken design (BBD) was employed to evaluate and optimize the reaction condition of the coagulation–flocculation process in drinking water treatment. A quadratic polynomial model was fitted to the data with a high value of R 2 (0.9901). Model validation experiments revealed the good correspondence between actual and predicted values. In drinking water treatment, a promising 98.3% turbidity reduction was achieved with 10.2 mg/L of FeCl 3 and 4.52 mg/L of SSG. Therefore, SSG exhibited potential as a coagulant aid in drinking water treatment.

Keywords: coagulation; bridging mechanism; response surface methodology; Box–Behnken design; biopolymer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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