Evaluation of the <i>Opuntia dillenii</i> as Natural Coagulant in Water Clarification: Case of Treatment of Highly Turbid Surface Water

doi:10.4236/jwarp.2013.512133

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Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2013, 5, 1242-1246

Published Online December 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jwarp)

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2013.512133

Open Access JWARP

Evaluation of the Opuntia dillenii as Natural Coagulant

in Water Clarification: Case of Treatment of Highly

Turbid Surface Water

Yéwêgnon Alima Esther Irma Nougbodé1,2, Cokou Pascal Agbangnan2, Alain Yaya Koudoro2,

Comlan Achille Dèdjiho1, Martin Pépin Aïna2, Daouda Mama1,

Dominique Codjo Koko Sohounhloué2*

1Laboratoire d’Hydrologie Appliquée (LHA), Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi,

Cotonou, République du Bénin

2Laboratoire d’Etude et de Recherche en Chimie Appliquée (LERCA), Ecole Polytechnique d’Abomey Calavi (EPAC),

Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, République du Bénin

Email: *[email protected], [email protected]

Received September 13, 2013; revised October 17, 2013; accepted November 14, 2013

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is

properly cited.

ABSTRACT

This study was performed in laboratory scale and consisted of the using of aqueous Opuntia dillenii solution for the

clarification of very turbid surface water (Turbidities varying between 186 NTU and 418 NTU). This plant from Cac-

taceae family was used as a natural coagulant for the different clarification tests. The preliminary phytochemical Screen-

ing of the powder of this plant showed that it contains tanins, saponins and mucilages. Flocculation and coagulation

tests showed that Opuntia dillenii can be used in highly turbid water treatment. The removal efficiency varied from 89%

to 93% for the turbidity and suspended solids, and from 4% to 15% for the obvious color in water when we used the

optimum values of this natural coagulant (1 mL to 10 mL). The successive addition of this natural coagulant and the

lime, gave a better elimination of turbidity and suspended solids, and a good reduction for the color. The removal effi-

ciency of the turbidity and suspended solids became more than 95% and the one of the color between 67% and 94%.

Keywords: Natural Coagulant; Opuntia dillen ii; Lime; Phytochemical Screening; Turbidity; Suspended Solids

1. Introduction

Surface water contains dissolved organic and inorganic

substances, living organisms and suspended solids [1].

These waters intended for human consumption, require a

specific sequence of treatments which comprises a physi-

cal and/or chemical pretreatment step followed by clari-

fication (coagulation flocculation, sedimentation, and fil-

tration) and finally a disinfection treatment and/or refin-

ing treatment.

Processes of coagulation and flocculation represent a

decisive step in this processing chain. Coagulant removes

small size of suspended solids called colloidal particles

that give water undesirable properties such as turbidity,

most often caused by clay minerals on which organic sub-

stances can be adsorbed. It also removes the color gener-

ally caused by organic substances such as humic and ful-

vic acids. The remove of these colloidal particles and co-

lor can lead to remove pollutants from water by adsorption

and therefore a significant removal of undesirable organic

substance, such as trihalomethane precursors [2,3].

The coagulants and flocculants which have the most

usage in water treatment are the synthetic ones as alumin-

ium sulphate, ferric chloride, lime, synthetic polymers

[4,5]. These chemicals are often costly, and may not be

available locally, or may have detrimental effects on

health and the environment [6].

To overcome these problems, scientific researchers find

sustainable alternative technologies using natural coagu-

lants. The seeds of Moringa oleifera are used as natural

coagulant for drinking water with better removal effi-

ciency of pollution elements such as turbidity, suspended

solids and some metals [7-12].

*Corresponding author.

Y. A. E. IRMA NOUGBODÉ ET AL. 1243

Several other natural flocculants were tested around the

world for the water treatment. This is among other things

as flocculant extract from Moroccan cactus which has led

to a significant reduction of turbidity and the elimination

of more than 99% of chromium (VI) in industrial waste-

water [13]. Peels fruits of Lablab purpureus were also

used as natural coagulant in water treatment with a yield

of 77% for turbidity [14]. Similarly the use of Plantago

ovata and flocculant activity of casein acid extracted from

the coconut cream in the clarification of surface water has

been demonstrated [15-17]. Some metals such as nickel,

iron, zinc, copper, aluminium, chromium and lead, can be

removed from the water with a very high efficiency of up

to 99% by use of natural coagulants such as the powder of

Moringa seeds, Opuntia ficus indica and many other

natural resources [7,18-20].

This study is conducted to expand the range of naturals

coagulants used in water clarification in order to increase

the chance of access to it, to the population regardless of

its geographical position. We chose to use the stems of

Opuntia dillenii because of its accessibility in the sub-

region especially in Benin Republic. The general objec-

tive of this work is to clarify highly turbid water using this

plant which belongs to the same family than that of Opun-

tia ficus indica, which has been already experimented in

the literature. It will be specifically used in a first step, this

natural coagulant for the removal of suspended solids in

highly turbid surface water and in a second step, to com-

bine this coagulant with lime to remove the obvious color

of the surface water.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Plant Materiels

Cactus (Opuntia dillenii) has been collected in Cotonou

town in Benin Republic. The stems of this plant were

stripped of their thorns and were cleaned with tap water.

A portion was ground immediately for the recovery of

the juice for the clarification test. The other part was

dried in the laboratory for two weeks and then reduced to

powder for phytochemical test.

Prepar ation of the Opuntia dillenii Aqueous Solution

The stems of Opuntia dillenii were stripped of their thorns,

then washed and crushed; 50 g of crushed were intro-

duced into 500 mL of distilled water and stirred using a

magnetic stirrer for one hour, then strained through a

sieve of 25 mm mesh. The filtrate collected was stored in

a refrigerator until the use which not exceeding one week.

2.2. Physico-Chemical Parameters

Determination

The pH, conductivity and turbidity were measured re-

spectively using a pH meter/conductivity meter WTW

340i and turbidity meter TURBIQUANT 1100 IR. The

color and suspended solids were measured using a col-

orimeter HACH DR/890. The coagulation and floccula-

tion test were conducted using a flocculator LOVIBOND

in six stations.

2.3. Preliminary Phytochemical Screening

The phytochemical screening was based on the coloring

reactions and/or the precipitation reactions of the chemi-

cal compounds in plants according to the method de-

scribed in BAGRE’s studies [21] and summarized in ta-

ble1.

2.4. Jar Test Experiments (Coagulation

Flocculation Test)

Raw water used for this test was drawn from the Nokoué

lake at the lagoon in Abomey Calavi town in Benin Re-

public. This water was a receptacle of all kinds of dis-

charges due to intense human activity.

The coagulation flocculation was performed according

to the protocol of “Jar Test” with rapid mixing of 160

rpm for 2 minutes, followed by slow mixing of 40 rpm

for 30 minutes and settling time of one hour. Increasing

doses of cactus solution and/or lime were introduced in

1000 mL of raw water. After settling time, 100 mL of the

supernatant were collected in the average of 2 and 3 cm

from the surface using a pipette and subjected to the

same physico-chemical analyzes of the raw water. The

removal efficiency of the analyzed parameters was de-

termined by the formula below:



Removal parameter in percentage100CC C

ifi

Ci represents the concentration of the parameter in the

raw water.

Cf represents the concentration of the same parameter

in the treated water.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Results of Preliminary Phytochemical

Screening

The results for preliminary phytochemical screening car-

ried out on the Opuntia dillenii’s rods powder were

shown in Ta bl e 1. From these results, Tannins, saponins

and mucilages were detected. However, they were devoid

of alkaloids, flavonoids and reducing compounds. Re-

sults were similar to those of N. Gebresamuel [22]. The

presence of mucilages and tannins, conferred to this plant

its flocculant property.

3.2. Results of Jar Test

The different results obtained are shown in Figur es 1-7 .

The relationship between the volumes of the Opuntia

Open Access JWARP

Y. A. E. IRMA NOUGBODÉ ET AL.

1244

dillenii aqueous solution used as natural coagulant and

the removal of turbidity, suspended solids and of the ob-

Table 1. Preliminary phytochemical screening of Opuntia

dillenii.

Tested for Specific test/Reagent used Results

Alkaloids Mayer’s reagent, Bouchardat’s reagent(-)

Tannins Ferric chloride Test (+)

Flavonoids Ferric chloride Test

Reaction with NaOH (-)

Saponins Froth Test (+)

Mucilages Test with absolute ether (+)

Reducing compounds Fehling’s test (-)

Quinones Borntraeger’s reagent (-)

(-) absence; (+) = presence.

Figure 1. Removal of Turbidity, suspended solids and the

apparent color of the treated water according to the volume

of Opuntia dillenii aqueous solution added.

Figure 2. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of treated water according to the volume of

Opuntia dillenii aqueous solution added (concentration of

lime remaining fixed: 0.25 g/L).

Figure 3. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water according to the volume

of Opuntia dillenii aqueous solution added (concentration of

lime remaining fixed: 0.50 g/L).

Figure 4. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water according to the volume

of Opuntia dillenii aqueous solution added (concentration of

lime remaining fixed: 1 g/L).

Figure 5. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water according to the concen-

tration of lime added (the volume of Opuntia dillenii aque-

ous solution remaining fixed: 1 mL).

Figure 6. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water acccording to the concen-

tration of lime added (the volume of opuntia dillenii aqueous

solution remaining fixed: 5 mL).

Figure 7. Removal of Turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water according to the concen-

tration of lime added (the volume of the Opuntia dillenii

aqueous solution remaining fixed: 10 mL).

vious color of the treated water was showed in Figure 1.

From these results, it appeared that using only the opti-

mal dosages of this solution (from 1 mL to 10 mL), the

removal efficiencies of the obvious color were very low

Open Access JWARP

Y. A. E. IRMA NOUGBODÉ ET AL. 1245

(from 4% to 15%) compared to the removal efficiencies

of suspended solids and turbidity yields (from 89% to

93%). These results were similar to other studies using

another species of cactus, Opuntia ficus indica and other

natural coagulant to remove turbidity of waters [14,15].

Increasing solution Opuntia dillenii from 1 to 40 mL, the

removal of the color changed from 15% to (−7%). This

removal became negative when adding greater than 20

mL of volume of this natural coagulant and this meant

the value of the color of the treated water was higher than

that of raw water. We could deduce that using this co-

agulant at low dose could slightly reduce the color of the

water, but this trend was reversed when it was used at

high dose.

Figures 2-7 showed us results of the influence of the

combination of lime and Opuntia dillenii aqueous solu-

tion on the elimination of parameters studied. From these

figures, it appeared that the combination of lime and

Opuntia dillenii solution significantly increased not only

the removal of turbidity and of suspended solids (>97),

but also that of the obvious color which changed from

15% using Opuntia dillenii solution alone, to 94% for the

optimal combination of this solution with lime. Our re-

sults were similar to Abid studies [13], which showed

that the optimum value 11 of the pH provided a good so-

lid-liquid separation hence the increase of performance

of the treatment process in terms of suspended solids.

Figures 5-7 showed that, the percentage of color re-

moval increased with the dose of lime. If the volume of

natural coagulant was set at 1 ml, the removal of color

changed from 82% to 92% for a concentration of lime

ranging between 0.25 g/L and 1 g/L (Figure 5). Varying

the volume of the latter solution at 5, 10, and 20 mL, still

for the same variations lime, the removal intervals be-

come respectively 67% to 94% (Figure 6) 62% to 92%

(Figure 7) and 45% to 88% (Figure 8). These results

showed that even combining it with lime, the increased

of Opuntia dillenii aqueous solution always resulted a

lower of color removal because this changed from 94%

to 88% for the adding of 1 g/L of lime (Figures 6-8). The

performance obtained for suspended solids were similar

to those obtained in other studies using Moroccan cactus

which botanically is Opuntia ficus indica [13].

4. Conclusions

At the end of this study that focused on the use of Opun-

tia dillenii aqueous solution as a natural coagulant for the

waters treatment, we can conclude that the use of this

plant helps not only rid this water of suspended solids

thereby eliminating turbidity, but its combined action

with lime eliminates water color. Our treatment test car-

ried out on the highly turbid water of Nokoué lake in

Benin Republic, has shown that 1 mL of this natural co-

agulant allows clarifying a liter of this water with a re-

Figure 8. Removal of turbidity, suspended solids and the

obvious color of the treated water according to the concen-

tration of lime added (the volume of the Opuntia dillenii

aqueous solution remaining fixed: 20 mL).

moval of 89% for the suspended solids, 93% for the tur-

bidity and 15% for the color. This same quantity of this

natural coagulant used with 1 g/L of lime provides better

outputs of removal for the parameters studied until 99%

for the suspended solids and turbidity and 89% for the

color.

Opuntia dillenii could be a possible alternative or can

display a good role of chemical flocculant or coagulant.

It could be more cost-effective for the treatment of the

waters and wastewaters especially in our African coun-

tries where the economic situation was lackluster.

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