Banana Pith As A Natural Coagulant
Banana Pith As A Natural Coagulant
Banana Pith As A Natural Coagulant
Ecological Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Poorly managed urban runoff and wastewater collection systems contaminate surface water, making it
Received 17 March 2016 necessary to treat the water before use in households. Coagulation and flocculation are essential compo-
Received in revised form 23 June 2016 nents of the treatment of drinking water and wastewater. This study evaluated the efficacy of banana pith
Accepted 4 July 2016
as a natural polyelectrolyte and coagulant. The banana biomass was characterized for functional groups
using FTIR model 8400, point of zero charge using solid addition method, and elemental composition
Keywords:
using Perkin-Elmer Series II CHNS/O 2400 Elemental Analyser. Coagulation and flocculation tests were
Surface water
conducted using batch test for various dosages of banana pith and pH values. The turbidity removal was
Banana pith
Water treatment
fitted with kinetic models for particulate removal and particle aggregation behaviour. The functional
Coagulation-flocculation groups in banana pith were O H, C H, C O C, C N groups and the carboxylic (COO-double bond)
Kinetics and ionic carboxylic ( COOH) groups. Banana pith point of zero charge was pH 4.8. The biomass com-
prised of 32.3% carbon, 4.21% hydrogen, 1.46% nitrogen, 43.5% oxygen and 0.86% sulphur. Treatment of
turbid water with banana pith removed up to 98.5, 54.3, 96.03, 98.9, 88.7, 100, 100, 92, 81, 100 and
60% of turbidity, COD, suspended solids, sulphates, nitrates, copper, chromium, iron, zinc, lead and man-
ganese, respectively, at a banana pith dosage of 0.1 kg/m3 and initial pH of 4. The significant removal
of a wide range of contaminants was attributed to the presence of the observed large number of func-
tional groups in the banana pith. Turbidity, sulphates, copper, chromium, zinc and lead were reduced to
the required drinking water standards. However, the concentrations of suspended solids, nitrates, iron
and manganese exceeded the recommended limits and, therefore, required supplemental treatment. The
flocculation process was best described by the second order kinetic model with a half-life 1/2 of 1.16 min
and a rate constant of K, of 2.676 m3 /kg min. The study demonstrated that banana pith has potential for
use as a substitute for the conventional metal coagulants.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.07.001
0925-8574/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
700 B. Kakoi et al. / Ecological Engineering 95 (2016) 699–705
require treatment of the sludge (Rondeau and Commenges, 2001). 2.1. Water sampling in Nairobi river
Increasing awareness of the costs, health issues and environmental
drawbacks in the use of conventional aluminium and iron-based Samples were collected from Nairobi River System at sampling
coagulants has shifted research interests towards natural organic point NA4 situated at coordinates 1◦ 14 44 S and 36◦ 59 19 E. Water
coagulants (Sook et al., 2014). Some of the coagulants of biolog- samples were collected as grab samples in pre-cleaned containers
ical origin that have been used include okra (Hibiscus esculentus) in duplicates and treated with nitric acid (2%). The samples were
(Al-Samawi and Shokrala, 1996), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), peach stored in a cool box and transported to the laboratory. The physical
kernel (Prunus persica sieb. zucc.) and beans (Phaseoulus spp.) (Jahn, and chemical characterization of the river water was conducted
2001), nirmali plants (Strychnos potatorum) (Chaudhuri and Babu, using Standard Methods (APHA, 1998).
2005), Moringa oliefera (Rico et al., 2010) and chitosan (Ozacar and
Sengli, 2002). The advantages of using organic polyelectrolyte in
place of alum include: (1) lower coagulant dose requirements, (2) 2.2. Preparation of banana pith coagulant
smaller increase in the ionic load of the treated water, (3) reduced
level of aluminium in treated water, (4) cost savings (Nazoic et al., Banana pith was obtained from harvested banana plantain at
2001). Organic coagulants, in most cases, act through adsorption- Juja, Kiambu County. The pith was cleaned and rinsed with distilled
polymer bridging and charge neutralization. water, cut into small pieces and dried in an oven at 60 ◦ C for 6 h.
Coagulation-flocculation kinetics is concerned with time The dried pieces were ground into a powder and the size passing
dependent changes in dispersions and suspensions. Coagulation- through 0.4 mm sieve used for tests.
flocculation rates indicate dispersion stability and provide valuable
information on interaction of particles (Kissa, 1999).
Banana pith is a natural polyelectrolyte that has not been 2.3. Material characterisation
used for any major economic purposes. It is a non-food waste
material that is obtained from banana plantain after fruit harvest- 2.3.1. Analysis of functional groups in banana pith
ing. Polyelectrolytes act in two distinct ways; namely, (i) charge The ground banana pith was mixed with potassium bromide at
neutralization, and (ii) bridging between particles (Bertsch et al., the ratio of 1:25. The mixture was ground and compressed using
1986). Attachment of polymer chains to particles occurs at a rate mini-hand compressor to attain a thin slate for analysis. The func-
that depends primarily on their concentrations, broadly accord- tional groups in the material for adsorption of pollutants were
ing to Smoluchowski kinetics (Gregory, 1988). This study evaluated analysed using FT-IR model 8400.
banana pith as an alternative to the conventional metal coagulants.
Fig. 6. Effects of river water initial pH on performance of banana pith (0.1 g/L).
Fig. 4. Point of zero charge of banana pith biomass.
3.4. Treatment of surface water using banana pith 3.6. Effects of pH on the removal of suspended solids
The observed levels of contaminants in Nairobi River indicate The removal of suspended solids was found to be greatest at
that the river did not meet the quality requirement for a source of pH 4 (Fig. 6). The significant effectiveness of banana pith coagu-
drinking water in Kenya (EMCR, 2006) (Table 1). The water also had lant at acidic pH may be attributed to the protonation of some of
Table 1
Characterization of Nairobi River Water before and after Coagulation with 0.1 kg/m3 of Banana Pith at pH 4 and 30 min settling time.
DL = Detection limit.
a
Source: EMCR (2006).
b
Source: KS 05-459: Part 1:1996.
Fig. 7. TSS (mg/L) for Banana Pith Dosages at different Sampling Time at pH 4. Fig. 8. First order plots for various banana pith dosage in River water at pH 4.
Table 2
Functional and kinetic parameters for variable dosage of banana pith of river water
for second order reaction at pH 4.
␣ 2 2 2 2
R2 0.979 0.995 0.991 0.997
k (m3 /kg min) 2.675 0.626 0.547 0.354
K (m3 /kg min) 5.349 1.252 1.094 0.709
1/2 (min) 1.164 4.976 5.694 8.790
Fig. 11. Particle size distribution plot for least half time of 1.16 min.
2.676 m3 /kg min and 1/2 of 1.16 min) is shown in Fig. 11. The num-
ber of primary particles (singlets) decreased rapidly as the doublets
and triplets increased. The observation was attributed to forma-
tion of doublets and triplets from the quick aggregation of singlets,
to facilitate the flocculation process (Holtholf et al., 1996). The
obtained curves are expected in coagulation-flocculation process
where there is absence of excessive colloidal entrapment and high
shear resistance. The dominant mechanism depicted in the graph
is charge neutralization combined with low bridging.
Fig. 10. Experimental and Predicted variation of suspended particle concentration
with time.
4. Conclusion
The time taken for the initial concentration of suspended par- 1. The banana pith powder contains several functional groups
ticles to reduce by half, 1/2, is as a measure of flocculation period. including the O H and C H groups, the carboxylic (COO-double
When t = 1/2, C = 0.5Co. Therefore, from Eq. (6): bond) and asymmetrical ionic carboxylic ( COOH) groups, and
1 other function groups such as the C O group of ketones,
1/2 = (7) aldehydes and lactones, the C O C and OH groups of
C0 k
polysaccharides and the C N groups.
In Fig. 8, the plot of Ln (Co /Ct ) against time did not pass through 2. Using banana pith, it is possible to remove up-to 98.5, 54.3, 96.03
the origin and, therefore, was inconsistent with Eq. (5) for first order 98.9, 88.7, 100, 100, 92, 81, 100 and 60% of turbidity, COD, sus-
kinetics. However, the plot, Fig. 9 was in agreement with Eq. (6). pended solids, sulphates, nitrates, copper, chromium, iron, zinc,
Therefore, the coagulation-flocculation process can be described lead and manganese, respectively. This significant removal of a
best by the second order equation. The second order kinetics wide range of contaminants from contaminated water maybe
parameters of the coagulation/flocculation process were computed because a wide range of functional groups exist in the banana
(Table 2) and used to model the experimental data (Fig. 10). pith.
The minimum 1/2 obtained in this study was in close range with 3. Contaminant removal using banana pith works best under acidic
previous works (Hunter, 1993; Menkiti and OnuKwuli, 2011). The conditions (pH 4).
results indicate relatively low repulsion in acidic medium, similar 4. Coagulation-flocculation kinetics with banana pith is best
to the findings of Menkiti and OnuKwuli (2011). The discrepancies described by second order kinetics with a peri-kinetic floc-
occurring in kinetic parameters could be attributed to interplay culation half-life 1/2 = 1.16 min and a rate constant K of
between van der waals and hydrodynamic forces, which reduces 2.676 m3 /kg min.
the correlation between experimental and theoretical values by a
factor of up to 2 (Swift and Friedlander, 1964; Holthof et al., 1997).
Acknowledgements
3.8. Suspended particle aggregation
The authors acknowledge Jomo Kenyatta University of Agri-
For Brownian aggregation, the von Smoluchowski equation on culture and Technology (JKUAT) and NACOSTI for financing this
collision opportunities can be solved exactly resulting in a generic project. We also acknowledge the Departments of Civil Engineer-
expression for time evolution of particles of the mth order (Eq. (8)) ing and Department of Chemistry at JKUAT for providing equipment
(Holtholf et al., 1996). and technical assistance. Special thanks go to Mr John Kamathi who
helped in analysis of plant and water samples.
Cm(t) = 4C0m (Kt) m−1 (2 + KC 0 t)−(m+1) (8)
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Where,Co = initial particle concentration.Cm(t) = number particles of
the mth order at time t Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
The time evolution for singlets, M1; doublets, M2; and the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.07.
triplets, M3 for banana pith dosage 0.1 kg/m3 and pH 4 (K of 001.
B. Kakoi et al. / Ecological Engineering 95 (2016) 699–705 705