Experimental evaluation of eco-friendly flocculants prepared fromdate palm rachis
Ramzi Khiari , Sonia Dridi-Dhaouadi , Chadlia Aguir , Mohamed Farouk Mhenni
DOI:
Received October 02, 2009,Revised December 21, 2009, Accepted , Available online
Volume 22,2010,Pages 1539-1543
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Sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMCNa) is an anionic water soluble polyelectrolyte widely used in many industrial sectors
including food, textiles, papers, adhesives, paints, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and mineral processing. CMCNa was produced by
chemical modification of cellulose, and represents many advantages: natural, renewable, non-toxic and biodegradable. In this study,
di erent kinds of CMCNa, prepared from an agricultural waste date palm rachis, were tested as eco-friendly flocculants for drinking
water treatment and their performances as flocculants in turbidity removal enhancement were assessed. The prepared materials were
characterized by the degree of substitution (DS) and polymerisation (DP). The study of the e ect of some experimental parameters
on the coagulation-flocculation performance, using the prepared materials combined with aluminium sulphate (as coagulant), showed
that the best conditions for turbidity treatment were given for pH 8, coagulant dose 20 mg/L, flocculant concentration of 100 mg/L
and stirring velocity (during the flocculation step) of 30 r/min. Under the optimum conditions, the turbidity removal using CMCNa,
prepared from raw material, was about 95%. A comparison study between the flocculation performance of a commercial anionic
flocculant (A100PWG: polyacrylamide) and that of the prepared CMCNa showed that the performance of the waste-based flocculant
with a DS of 1.17 and a DP of 480 was 10% better than that achieved by the commercial one.
