Abstract
Natural coagulants from a crude water extract of common bean seed showed very good efficiency of turbidity removal from water of ~89 % under optimal coagulation conditions, which were determined using response surface methodology (RSM). However, they also increased the content of organic matter in treated model water by ~66 %, which is the main drawback of usage of natural coagulants, in general. Thus, ultrafiltration was applied for processing of the crude water extract in order to separate biomolecules, which exhibit the coagulation activity. Four fractions obtained by ultrafiltration were applied in coagulation tests under the same conditions as the crude extract, and the 4th fraction (molecules with molecular weights >30 kDa) with the predominant content of proteins with molecular weights 50 - 60 kDa, achieved almost as high efficiency of turbidity removal (75 %) as the crude extract. At the same time, the content of organic matter in treated water increased just for 16 % in comparison to the blank (model water processed in the same way but without coagulant). After optimization of process parameters by RSM for usage of the 4th fraction, the coagulation activity increased further to 80 %.
Highlights
In the age of evident and rapid environmental degradation, research and application of novel technologies, which are less hazardous to nature, represent an important progress in line with global efforts for sustainable development
Four fractions obtained by ultrafiltration were applied in coagulation tests under the same conditions as the crude extract, and the 4th fraction with the predominant content of proteins with molecular weights 50 – 60 kDa, achieved almost as high efficiency of turbidity removal (75 %) as the crude extract
Traditional coagulants used in water and wastewater treatments, such as salts of alum and iron as well as synthetic organic polyelectrolytes exhibit good efficiencies, many drawbacks are related to these applications [1,2,3,4,5]
Summary
In the age of evident and rapid environmental degradation, research and application of novel technologies, which are less hazardous to nature, represent an important progress in line with global efforts for sustainable development. Natural coagulants are believed to be a good alternative to chemical coagulants and flocculants in water and wastewater treatments and are expected to play a more significant role in the future. Considering the fact that M. oleifera is a tropical plant, we have investigated in our laboratory the possibility of extraction of natural coagulants from sources that are cheap and available in the Balkan region, as well as in Europe. These investigations confirmed the fact that common bean and other various strains of Leguminose could be used as sources of natural coagulants [10,11,12,13,14]. Common bean offers a few advantages over the M. oleifera seed
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