COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ORGANIC COAGULANTS IN WATER TREATMENT

Abstract

A comparative study of various organic coagulants for the treatment of surface water is presented in this paper. Organic coagulants like Banana pith (Musa), seeds of Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Acorn (Quercus), Drumstick (Moringa oleifera), Clearing nut (Strychnos Potatorum) are studied. The water samples are collected from two places like Cooum River in Thiruvallur and Puzhal Lake in Chennai. This study also involves removing undesirable physical, chemical and biological contaminants from the water. The physical and chemical characteristics of the river water were studied initially. The seeds of Tulsi, Acorn, Drumstick, Clearing nut and pith of banana were powdered to get the seed extracts. Experiments were performed with the seed extracts to evaluate the effects on turbidity, pH, Total dissolved solids, chloride and sulphate concentration and hardness of the river water. All the water samples were analysed and tested in laboratory. The initial turbidity of Cooum river is 38.4NTU and that of Puzhal lake is 84.8NTU. The turbidities of the water samples were reduced to 6.1NTU and 10.9NTU. The organic coagulants were the most efficient expressing the highest coagulation activities, around 75%.