Using Eco-Friendly Nano-Polymers in Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Abstract The major target of this research is to synthesize an eco-friendly coagulant, based on a biomaterial (potato starch) that contribute in industrial wastewater treatment. From this work an eco-friendly nano-polymer was produced from potato starch. Successfully not only the potatoes were used, but also the potato peel, which has an economic impact on reducing the amount of water wasted in planting such an important crop as the potatoes all over the world. Because of increasing the need for food production and changing the dietary pattern, the development of potato industry has become the first among all food crops in most of the countries. As a result potato starch became the most popular type among the polysaccharides. To achieve this, the experimental work started by extracting the starch from the potato and potato waste (peels). In order to enhance the potato starch characteristics, the synthesis of starch nano-particles (StNPs) was conducted by gelatinization using a mixture of sodium hydroxide along with glycerol in aqueous medium throughout the reaction process, while settling down the StNPs which was done by homogenization at ambient temperature. Characterization was done on both native potato starch and starch nano-particles using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The second part of the experimental work is to test the eco-friendly starch nano-particles (starch-based coagulants) in industrial wastewater treatment, and to evaluate its effectiveness as a coagulant against the most commonly used synthetic polymer (PolyDADMAC) playing the same roll in industry and whether it can really replace it or not.