Efficient removal of dyes in textile effluents using aluminum-based coagulant

Gohar Jalal, Naeem Abbas, Farah Deeba, Tahir Butt, Shafaq Jilal andSadaf Sarfraz

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of aluminum-based coagulant on textile wastewater quality. Taking into account the environmental and economic factor, aluminum chloride was employed individually on wastewater as well as in combination with alum to remove the COD, turbidity and color. Four batches of 50 mL of wastewater were prepared then, 5 mL of AlCl3 and 1 mL alum was added in first batch named treatment T1. To optimize the treatment process for maximum reduction of COD, color and turbidity, dose of coagulants was increased by 5 mL of AlCl3 and 1 mL of alum per batch labeled with (T2, T3, T4) at original pH 9. Further study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pH on removal of color, turbidity and COD. Consequences of each treatment reveals that maximum reduction was obtained with neutral pH values as compared to pH 3, 9 and 11. Treatment T3 presented remarkable results, 98% reduction in both COD and color whereas, 99% in turbidity was observed at pH 7. Results demonstrated the effective application of aluminum-based coagulant to treat the textile wastewater.