Abstract

TREATMENT OF DAIRY WASTEWATER BY MORINGA OLEIFERA SEEDS

Sonal Chonde* and Prakash Raut

Abstract

Moringa oleifera (MO) is a multipurpose, medium or small-sized tree, from regions of North West India and indigenous to many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. Its pods have been employed as an inexpensive and effective sorbent for the removal of organics. It can act as coagulant for water treatment. It is a non-toxic natural organic polymer. The main objective of this work was to use the MO seeds as a natural adsorbent for the treatment of dairy industry wastewater (DIW). Seeds of the plant, Moringa oleifera contain natural polyelectrolyte which can be used as coagulants to clarify turbid waters. During this study, dairy industry wastewater was collected for treatment by Moringa seeds in powdered form, resulting in an effective natural clarification agent for highly turbid and untreated pathogenic water. Various doses of Moringa seed powder viz. 1, 2 and 3gm/l were taken and checked for treatment of dairy wastewater. After treatment of seed powder with water samples were analyzed for different parameter like pH, Electrical conductivity, TDS, TSS, Hardness, Chlorides, COD, BOD. All parameters showed reduction with increasing dose of seed powder. Therefore, application of this low cost Moringa oleifera seeds is recommended for ecofriendly, nontoxic, simplified waste water treatment.

Keywords: Dairy industry wastewater, Moringa oleifera, natural coagulant.