Author(s)

M.C. Menkiti, O.D. Onukwuli

Department of Chemical Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria..

Following the need for the use of environmentally friendly, renewable resource in industrial processes, this work explores the potential of an effective application in pilot scale of Afzelia bella seed as a coag-flocculant. The study evaluates the coag-flocculation efficiency and functional kinetic parameter response to varying pH and dosage of coal washery effluent and ABC respectively. The maximum coag-flocculation performance is recorded at rate constant, K of 3.3333 x 10^-3m³/kg.s, dosage of (0.3 and 0.2kg/m³); pH of 2 and coagulation period, τ_1/2of 28.1216 s while the minimum is recorded at K of 1.6667 x 10^-4m³/kg.s, dosage of 0.2kg/m³, pH of 10 and τ_1/2 of 562.365 s. The least value of coag-flocculation efficiency, E (%)>89.00. Simulated and unsimulated values of rate constants Ks and K respectively are in close agreement, validating the concept of perikinetics. The potential of ABC as an effective organic coag-flocculant has been established. The results confirm that theory of rapid coagflocculation holds for the aggregation of coal washery effluent using ABC and at the conditions of the experiment.

Afzelia bella; coag-flocculation; coal effluent; kinetics; nephelometry.

M. Menkiti and O. Onukwuli, "Coag-Flocculation Studies of Afzelia Bella Coagulant (ABC) in Coal Effluent Using Single and Simulated Multi Angle Nephelometry," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 10 No. 3, 2011, pp. 279-298. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2011.103019.