Evaluation of efficiency of extracted natural coagulant from plane tree seed for turbidity removal from industrial effluent (Case study: Effluent of Hamedan Pegah Dairy Company)

Wastewater of food industries contains large amounts of suspended solids and other chemicals which produced during cleaning and sanitary purposes. Therefore, removal of these pollutants from effluent is very important. The aim of this study was to removal of turbidity from the effluent of Hamedan Pegah Dairy Company using extracted natural coagulant from plane seed.

In this descriptive study, the effects of contact time, adsorbent dose, pH and turbidity values on efficiency of turbidity removal from food industries effluent were investigated. Also, adsorbent characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), moreover, the adsorption of turbidity studied from both kinetics and equilibrium points of view.

Based on the results obtained, the highest turbidity removal efficiency at optimum conditions (i.e. pH of 8, contact time of 60 min, initial turbidity of 1 NTU and adsorbent dose of 0.1 g/l) was found to be 98%. Also, the adsorption kinetic of turbidity via plane tree seed coagulant followed pseudo second-order (PSO) model (R2 = 0.991), while the adsorption isotherm obeyed Langmuir model (R2 = 0.994) with maximum adsorption capacities of 0.203 mg/g.

In conclusion, due to the natural coagulant from plane tree seed showed a high efficiency to removal of turbidity from wastewater, it could be used as a suitable alternative in comparing with common chemical coagulants for reduce the pollutants from the effluent of food industries in wastewater treatment plants.