Study of Boscia Senegalensis as a Coagulant to Remove Turbidity from Drinking Water

Abstract

The study's goal was to find out how well the powdered Boscia Senegalensis (Pers.) Lam. ex Poir plant works as a natural coagulant to remove turbidity in raw water and improve the quality of drinking water. They did this by testing different amounts of Boscia Senegalensis, leaves BSL, and barks BSB, with a starting turbidity level of 700–600 NTU. The jar tests were done with different amounts of flocculent 40 minutes after treatment (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 g/l) to get rid of turbidity. The results of BSB powder were (24.74, 88.17, 87.87, 87.48, 88.33, 86.83, 82.00%) and BSL powder (22.91, 59.94, 67.63, 65.86, 64.26, 61.53, 54.33%), respectively. These results showed activity in turbidity removal; the dose of 0.8 g/l was the optimal amount of BSB, achieving 88.33%, and the optimal dose of BSL was 0.4 g/l, reaching 67.63%. Also, other parameters such as pH, alkalinity, and TDS showed a few changes in the pH from 8 to 7.7 in all different doses of BSB and BSL, and alkalinity from 92 to 90 mg/l for the BSB and 86 to 120 mg/l for the BSL. Alkalinity increases with increasing BSL and BSB doses. It was observed through the results that Boscia senegalensis has efficiency in removing turbidity. Still, BSB results were much better than BSL, which agrees with the previous study.