Evaluation of the efficiency of seeds (Moringa oleífera lam.) as natural coagulant in pasto - Colombia

Abstract

Background: In water purification are used synthetic coagulants that are related problems such as Alzheimer’s and high toxic sludge production (1), being necessary assess natural coagulants as an alternative to the removal of turbidity (2) that are less harmful to health and the environment (3). Objective: Evaluate the efficiency of coagulation moringa oleifera seeds lam. Methods: This research was conducted in two phases: The first evaluated four extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam, in order to find the best extraction method using a fixed effect unifactorial design completely randomized balanced by jartest under the NTC 3903, working confunsing factor dose of coagulant, in the second stage it was evaluated using a factorial design 22 efficiency seed coagulant Moringa oleifera lam. Results: determining that the best method is the extraction to use saline (p<0.05), as the response variable was found turbidity removal and the optimum factors for a 97% removal are: dose 274.9 mg/l coagulant extract and pH 7.1 with a 95% confidence (p <0.05), Conclusions: Further to this evaluation the clotting mechanism of seed extract Moringa oleifera Lam was determined by sedimentation rate, which allowed to represent the dynamic behavior of turbidity removal by a mathematical model based on differential equations of the first order, finding the maximum removal time is 20 minutes and the sedimentation rate of 0.003 cm/ s clotting mechanism is charge neutralization and adsorption. © 2016, Universidad de Antioquia. All rights reserved.