Combined Coagulation-Microfiltration Process for Dye Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The performance of combined coagulation-microfiltration process for the removal of dyes in a binary mixture of dye wastewater of varied concentrations and fruit drink wastewater at three different strengths; low (10ppm), medium (50ppm) and high (100ppm) was investigated. Synthetic dye wastewater was prepared in the laboratory while fruit drink wastewater was purchased from the grocery store. Color removal efficiency was also investigated for the three coagulants; Ferric Chloride, Aluminum Sulfate and Ferrous Sulfate. Transmittance and Absorbance values were used as indices to measure the efficacy of the combined coagulation- microfiltration process. Transmittance and absorbance values of 99.8% and 0.001 respectively were achieved post treatment. Ferric Chloride and Aluminum Sulfate gave better results than Ferrous Sulfate, which gave the poorest results in terms of color removal efficiency. The results of this study revealed the viability of combined coagulation-microfiltration as an inexpensive and effective method of treating dye wastewater and showed the empirical relationship between coagulant dosage, dye strength and removal efficiency on the effluent quality of combined wastewater samples.