Eco-Conscious Remediation: Harnessing the Power of Natural Coagulants for Dairy Wastewater Treatment
摘要
Dairy industry produces significant effluent as well as being one of the most polluting food sectors. High levels of COD, BOD, and various types including organic, inorganic substances. Untreated dairy waste has a very pungent smell that attracts germs; therefore, it is dangerous to environment, groundwater, and public health and it needs a good treatment before disposal. The study focused on untreated dairy wastewater used for treating purposes. Some of these natural coagulants were based on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), corn (Zea mays), custard apple seed (Annona reticulate) and Preliminary characteristics of the untreated wastewater showed turbidity amounting to 298.3 FAU, pH was 5.83, TSD was 1378 mg/L, TS was 4100 mg/L, TSS was 2722 mg/L, EC was at 1968.57 mS/cm, COD was at 380 mg/L and BOD was at 9.6 mg/L. It was observed that the optimum dosage of cowpea, corn, cluster bean and custard apple seeds are found to be 2 g/1000 mL, 5 g/1000 mL, 2 g/1000 mL and 3 g/1000 mL respectively. Cowpea was found to be less efficient on pollutants removal and similar results were observed with seeds of cluster bean and custard apple. Corn appeared to be as the best coagulant that removed up to 7.32% of TDS and 18.29% of TSS. Corn was remarkably more efficient than any other coagulant, including parameters that did not measure turbidity. This further reinforces the ability of Zea Mays or Corn as an excellent natural coagulant in dairy wastewater treatment.