Use of <i>Aloe vera</i> as an Organic Coagulant for Improving Drinking Water Quality

The coagulation–flocculation–sedimentation process is widely used for removal of suspended solids and water turbidity reduction. The most common coagulants used to conduct this process are aluminum sulfate and ferric sulfate. In this paper, the use of <i>Aloe vera</i> as a natural-based...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abderrezzaq Benalia, Kerroum Derbal, Amel Khalfaoui, Raouf Bouchareb, Antonio Panico, Corrado Gisonni, Gaetano Crispino, Francesco Pirozzi, Antonio Pizzi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
Series:Water
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/15/2024
Description
Summary:The coagulation–flocculation–sedimentation process is widely used for removal of suspended solids and water turbidity reduction. The most common coagulants used to conduct this process are aluminum sulfate and ferric sulfate. In this paper, the use of <i>Aloe vera</i> as a natural-based coagulant for drinking water treatment was tested. The bio-coagulant was used in two different forms: powder as well as liquid; the latter was extracted with distilled water used as a solvent. The obtained results showed that the use of the natural coagulant (<i>Aloe vera</i>) in both powder (AV-Powder) and liquid (AV-H<sub>2</sub>O) forms reduced the water turbidity at natural pH by 28.23% and 87.84%, respectively. Moreover, it was found that the use of the two previous forms of bio-coagulant for drinking water treatment had no significant influence on the following three parameters: pH, alkalinity, and hardness. The study of the effect of pH on the process performance using <i>Aloe vera</i> as a bio-coagulant demonstrated that the maximum turbidity removal efficiency accounted for 53.53% and 88.23% using AV-Powder and AV-H<sub>2</sub>O, respectively, at optimal pH 6.
ISSN:2073-4441