Abstract
The study explored the suitability of unfractionated extracts from the seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree as a coagulant for water treatment. The coagulant was obtained by soaking crushed and sieved seeds in a low salinity aqueous solution: a simple and inexpensive alternative to conventional coagulants in settings where specialized expertise and equipment are lacking. The performance of M. oleifera-derived coagulants was quantified in terms of turbidity removal, bacteriophage clearance, concentration of residual organics, as well as meta-parameters such as floc size and fractal dimension. Treating high turbidity clay suspensions at the optimal coagulant dosage (14.7 mg(DOC)/L) and flocculation mixing conditions (\(\overline{G }\)= 22.4 s−1) removed > 94% of turbidity, similar to that recorded in reference tests with alum. Floc size distribution shifted to larger sizes during the first 10 min of flocculation with no change afterwards, while the floc fractal dimension, \({D}_{f}\), continued to increase, pointing to the gradual formation of denser (\({D}_{f}\)= 2.1 to 2.2), more settleable flocs. Preliminary tests with MS2 bacteriophage showed that coagulation with M. oleifera decreased the viable MS2 titre by ~ 1.3 log, which was significantly above the turbidity removal (~ 1 log). The extraction process, however, allowed a large amount of residual organics (> 78% of extracted DOC) into the treated water. Combining the coagulants with downstream filtration and adsorption, employing UV or solar disinfection, or limiting applications to non-potable reuse is suggested for mitigating the concerns related to residual DOC.
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The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Phipps & Bird, Inc. for donating the jar tester used in coagulation–flocculation studies and Dr. Wei Zhang for providing access to the Malvern Zetasizer Nano-ZS instrument in his laboratory. We also thank Xunhao (John) Wang for his assistance with particle size measurements.
Funding
This material is based upon work funded in part by the US National Science Foundation under grants OISE-1243433 and OISE-1952438 and by the Research Council of Norway under grant 261692. Romuald Gonety was supported through the Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program and the Honors College’s Research Scholars program at Michigan State University.
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AM, BSW, and VVT conceptualized the study. AM participated in all aspects of the experimental work. KDH performed tests on MS2 removal and quantification. BSW, DJT, and RG contributed to the optimization of coagulant extraction and coagulation–flocculation research. AM and VVT participated in results validation. All authors contributed to the development of the methodology and the formal analysis of data; AM, KDH, and VVT worked on data visualization and curated the data. VVT supervised and administered the project. AM and VVT developed the original draft of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited subsequent drafts and approved the final manuscript.
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The SI file contains data on particle size measurements of coagulants; particle size distribution vs time for two additional flocculation mixing rates; residual turbidity and DOC as a function of coagulant dosage for two additional flocculation mixing rates; calculation details for and summary of mixing parameters; data from baseline tests with 0.01 M NaCl and alum as coagulants; details of MS2 propagation and quantification procedures; description of light diffraction measurements; and summary of p-values for statistical differences for fractal dimension data
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Murali, A., Hillstead, K.D., Wrobel, B.S. et al. Moringa oleifera-derived coagulants for water treatment: Floc structure, residual organics, and performance trade-offs. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 24381–24389 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19071-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19071-8