Destabilization of Emulsion Oil Separation by using Chemical Coagulation Process: Preliminary Investigation for Effective Analysis

Abstract

Removal of pollutants produced by industrial plants requires reusing of water and access to the environment standard. The chemical coagulation process is a convectional method for wastewater treatment to reduce chemical oxygen demand and total suspend solids. The objective of this work is to study the effect of initial pH, coagulant type, and chemical dosage used on the separation performance at different initial oil concentrations. Based on the result, 800 mg/L of aluminum sulphate could remove up to 80% of 1g/L and 2g/L residual oil in wastewater, whereas residual 3g/L of that in wastewater with pH ranging from 7 to 8 could be removed up to 90%. In the instance of ferric chloride, the high removal efficiency of residual oil in wastewater could be achieved by utilizing a coagulant concentration ranging from 500 mg/L to 900 mg/L. Results show that, 700 mg/L of ferric chloride could remove up to 90% of residual oil in synthetic wastewater (1 g/L, 2 g/L, and 3 g/L). However, the aluminum sulphate could only remove 60–85 % of the total oil within the same dosage. In summary, further study on the possibility of ferric chloride in removing residual oil from wastewater could be considered.