The use of moringa olifera and mangifera india seeds as coagulants in coagulation-flocculation process for water treatment

Abstract

The use of Alum as coagulant can bring long term or short term negative effects to human due to the residue of Alum in treated water. Therefore, natural coagulant and coagulant aid should be used to replace the chemical coagulants. In this research, seeds of Moringa oleifera and Mangifera indica were chosen as natural coagulant and coagulant aid respectively in order to replace chemical coagulants. The objectives were to characterize Moringa oleifera and Mangifera indica seed in terms of their surface morphology by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the presence of functional groups by using Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and their surface area by using Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET). The second objective was to determine the optimum dosage and pH of Moringa oleifera and Mangifera indica seeds in coagulation process. The Moringa oleifera seed had spherical structure with small pores on surface while Mangifera indica seed appeared as an irregular granule unit with rough surface. Functional groups that present in Moringa oleifera seed were amine and hydroxyl groups due to the presence of protein while for Mangifera indica were aldehyde and hydroxyl groups due to the presence of starch. The BET surface area of Moringa oleifera was larger than Mangifera indica. The optimum dosages of Moringa oleifera and Mangifera indica were determined by using jar test. Three main parameters that were being studied were turbidity, Total Suspended Solid and pH of synthetic turbid water.