Drinking water management: Using Vicia faba as an eco-friendly plant-based flocculant for rapid sedimentation of high turbid surface water

Reducing turbidity of river water after heavy rainfall is a challenging step in water treatment plant. Flocculation/coagulation and sedimentation has been well accepted as a feasible approach for addressing this issue at large scale. However, using chemical flocculants might cause secondary pollution at downstream. Therefore, developing eco-friendly plant-based flocculants is essential. In this study. Vicia faba was investigated as a promising plant-based flocculants for efficient removal of turbidity and TSS from river through flocculation/sedimentation process. According to the results adding ۱۰۰ mg/L of Vicia faba could significantly increase the initial settling velocity of clay from ۰.۷۹ to ۸.۳۲ mm/s. Consequently, the turbidity removal efficiency remarkably improved as ۸۰% removal efficiency was achieved within ۵ min. Moreover, the pH adjustment experiments results revealed that Vicia faba had better performance under acidic condition. The highest turbidity removal efficiency of ۸۵% was archived under pH of ۵ and Vicia dosage of ۵۰ mg/L. Our finding suggested a promising, environmentally friendly and cost effective approach form turbiduty removal from surface water.

Keywords:

Turbidity , Vicia faba , Water treatment , Sedimentation , Flocculent