Performance Evaluation of Pomegranate Seed Coagulants Undergoing Water Treatment Under Different Solvent Conditions
摘要
This study explores the application of pomegranate seeds (PS) as a natural coagulant meant to reduce turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) in synthetic water, ultimately enhancing drinking water quality. The synthetic water, prepared using kaolin, initially exhibited a turbidity of 500 NTU and a TSS of 540 mg/L. Pomegranate seeds were cleaned, washed with tap water, dried, ground, and finely sieved into a powdered form. To enhance its effectiveness as a coagulant, the powder was treated with various solvents (to extract the active coagulant agents): (i) distilled water (PS-H2O), (ii) 0.5 M sodium chloride solution (PS-NaCl), (iii) 0.5 M hydrogen chloride solution (PS-HCl), and (iv) 0.5 M sodium hydroxide solution (PS-NaOH). Different effective efficiency assessments were conducted using standard jar test procedures to ascertain the effectiveness of these coagulants under varied operational conditions. It was observed that turbidity and TSS of PS treated with distilled water could reduce from 500 NTU to 108 NTU and from 540 mg/L to 35.3 mg/L, respectively. The results also showed that removal efficiencies concerning turbidity were highest when using PS-NaCl (95.9% reduction efficiency; 96.3% TSS). In the cases of PS-HCl and PS-NaOH, the lowest final water turbidity values were 35.6 NTU and 91.3 NTU at 300 mg/L and 500 mg/L respectively, with concomitant percentages of TSS removal being 95.18% and 83.21%, respectively.