Removing Boron from an Aqueous Solution Using Turmeric Extract-Aided Coagulation-Flocculation
- 1 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract
Problem statement: Boron exists in an environment naturally either through weathering of rocks or volcanic activity but due to anthropogenic activity, boron had been distributed widely into our surroundings. Boron was a problematic pollutant due to the difficulty to remove it from the water. Turmeric which had been widely used as a spice and traditional medicine, were investigated to determine its capabilities to aid in coagulation-flocculation process to remove boron. Optimizing coagulation-flocculation process might be effective to remove boron to a lower concentration. Approach: In this study, the optimum parameter for pH, dose of aluminium sulfate (alum) and a dose of turmeric extract were determined by conducting a set of jar test experiment. The coagulation-flocculation process was performed to study the effectiveness of the turmeric extract as a coagulant aid in boron removal. Results: The result demonstrated that coagulation-flocculation process with the aid of turmeric extract can remove boron effectively at optimum conditions rather than coagulation-flocculation process without the aid of turmeric extract. The optimum conditions for boron removal were achieved at pH 7, an alum dosage of 18, 367 mg L-1 and turmeric extract dosage of 82 mg L-1. Conclusion/Recommendations: Result showed that removal of boron depends on pH, alum dosage and turmeric extract dosage. The boron removal percentage of the aqueous solution using the coagulation-flocculation process aided by the addition of turmeric extract and without the addition of turmeric extract were 95 and 62%, respectively. In addition, there was a significance difference between both processes. Turmeric extract as a coagulant aid demonstrated promising performance in boron removal and can be used as an alternative treatment to treat boron-containing wastewater.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajessp.2012.322.327
Copyright: © 2012 Azhar Abdul Halim, Nur Hanani Thaldiri, Normah Awang and Mohd Talib Latif. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Turmeric extract
- coagulation-flocculation
- boron removal