Synergistic integration of Moringa oleifera and coconut husk for novel wastewater adsorption applications

Abstract

Moringa oleifera has gained significant attention from researchers due to its efficacy as a natural adsorbent for water treatment, but it alone is unable to remove turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), and electrical conductivity (EC) effectively from wastewater. This requires chemical alterations using concentrated acid and alum, which is undesirable; thus, this study reported the use of combined M.oleifera with coconut husk (CH) as a coagulant for water treatment. The combination of 0.06 g of M.oleifera and 0.02 g of CH to form MOCH 3:1, identified as the best optimum composition, was evaluated based on turbidity removal at various pH levels (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) and temperature (25℃,40 ℃, 60℃, 80℃ and 100℃), TDS, TSS, and EC removal from wastewater. The surface properties of these materials were examined through SEMEDX, FTIR, BET-N2 adsorption, and zeta potential. The MOCH 3:1 had a synergistic impact, resulting in the highest removal efficiency of over 90% for turbidity, TDS, TSS, and EC from synthetic wastewater at pH 6 and 25℃. This showed that MOCH 3:1 removes wastewater pollutants better than individual coagulants.