Textile wastewater treatment by using Cactus mucilage as A Biofloculant

Abstract

The textile industries generate significant textile wastewater, posing significant environmental and human health risks. The use of synthetic flocculants, which are effective in cleaning contaminants, has been criticized for its limitations, including pH issues, inefficiency, and negative effects on human health. As a result, natural materials are being explored for treatment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Cactus mucilage as a natural flocculant for the treatment of textile wastewater. The liquid form of Cactus mucilage was extracted by adding 500gm of peeled cactus mixed with 1:7 ratio of distilled water followed by maceration for 8hrs at temperature 40±2 0C and filtration using fine cloth. The Flocculation experiments were carried out using Jar-test apparatus in order to study the effect of extracted cactus mucilage as well as optimum condition of flocculation by varying some operational parameters such as dose of flocculant (0.5-3ml), pH (4-10), and mixing time (10-60), while the amount of coagulant (PAC) and de-colorant were kept constant, 250ppm and 350ppm, respectively. Moreover, the effectiveness of Cactus mucilage as a flocculant in the absence of coagulant (PAC) was evaluated. Color, Turbidity, TSS, COD, BOD, alkalinity, F- , PO4 3-, TN, SO4 3-, Ca2+ and Mg2+ were selected as dependent variable of the experiment to show material effectiveness and measured following APHA 2000 standard procedure. The optimum conditions for the efficient use of cactus mucilage as a bioflocculant were 2 ml of flocculant dose, pH 7, and 50 minutes of mixing time. At this optimum condition the removal efficiency in the presence of PAC and de-colorant with rapid mixing of 150rpm for 3 minutes and slow mixing of 50 rpm for 50 minutes and 20 minutes of the settling time for Color, Turbidity, TSS, COD, BOD, alkalinity, F- , PO4 3-, TN, SO4 3-, Ca2+ and Mg2+ were 98.6%, 98.2%, 98.6%, 79.8%, 72%, 34.6%, 37.4%, 96.8%, 70%, 31.3%, 42% and 39.8%, respectively from textile Wastewater. Hence, the uses of Cactus mucilage as flocculant in the presence of PAC and decolorant is found to be effective for removal of aforementioned parameters.