| Summary: | A study on the instrumental, thermal and settling characteristics of generated sludge after bio-coagulation treatment (GSABT) of petroleum produced water (PW) was undertaken. SEM-EDAX, FTIR, XRD and TGA/DSC were conducted to respectively investigate the structure, composition and thermal stability of GSABT. Settling characteristics of GSABT and its filterability were also studied. The wave numbers (peaks) for the GSABT show the finger prints regions of aromatic aldehyde, alkane, azo and ester groups. The atomic structure and thermal characterization of GSABT depict primitive crystalline structure and thermal stability. The sludge sedimentation studies showed four zones of settling (lag, hindered, transition and compression zones). The sludge filtration characteristics of GSABT indicated specific cake resistance (SCR) (α) of 1.265×1010mkg and filter medium resistance (Rm) of 5.89×102m−1 at determination coefficient (R2) of 0.9838. The settling velocity models tested show that Cho exponential model fitted the data adequately and satisfactorily. GSABT contains essential elements (P, Ca, Mg, Na) and could be beneficiated further for economic uses.
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