Development of peat base as coagulant agent for emulsified wastewater of canon industry / Nur Fazliana Abdul Rahman

Waste water generated in Canon industrial processes, contain organic compounds which are not easily amenable to chemical or biological treatment. The processing plants utilize a wide variety of coolants (polishing and penta coolant) and other chemicals such as surfactants, detergents, mineral oils, anti-corrosives, antiseptic agents, defoamings, carboxylic acid and alkanol amine which can cause an emulsion problem (oil in water or O/W) and enhance the values of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total organic carbon (TOC) and oil and grease. In order to overcome these problems, a method called "Fixed-Bed Burning System" was developed which was used to produce coagulant agent from local peat [powder activated carbon (PAC)] by carbonisation and activation processes to treat the emulsified wastewater of Canon industry. In this method, the peat was carbonised for 5 hours at 350-440 °C to be peat charcoal. Then the peat charcoal (20.0 grams each) was impregnated with specific concentration of hydrochloric acid (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 M) for 30 minutes with the volume of 100.0 ml to adjust it pH and after that it was activated for 8 hours at 600 °C. The impregnated peat (2.0 grams each) was then applied into the 50.0 ml of wastewater sample to determine the best molar for coagulation-flocculation process. From the results, the impregnated peat with 1.5 M indicated as the optimum concentration to get the clearest supernatant. The condition was used to determine either the impregnated peat could act as coagulant or not by varied the weight (3.0, 5.0, 7.0 and 13.0 grams) with 50.0 ml of wastewater sample and undergo the chemical and physical tests such as COD, BOD, absorbance and pH. Polyaluminum chloride (PAC1 10 %), non-impregnated peat charcoal and non-impregnated coconut shell charcoal were used as comparison. The best coagulant was impregnated peat charcoal (13.0 grams) due to it lower COD value (6 000 mg/1), BOD value (38.25 mg/1), and pH (2.00).