Production Of Red Mud Composite As Coagulant For Harvesting Chlorella Vulgaris
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Date
2017-05
Authors
Abdullah, Nor Fatihah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Red mud is a solid waste which is insoluble and has high alkaline content that is produced during alumina extraction from bauxite using Bayer process. The most common way used to dispose the red mud is by dumping it into large pond within the secured places. But the biggest concern regarding this method it does create pollutions due to high alkaline content and presence of heavy metals in red mud. This study will focus on the feasibility of developing composite coagulant from red mud by using acid leaching method which consists of acid leaching, hydrolyzation and polymerization. This composite was used as coagulant to harvest Chlorella vulgaris using coagulation-flocculation method. Production composite coagulant from red mud is promising because of its have high content of aluminium oxide and iron oxide. The aims of this study are to synthesize, characterize, modification and utilization of composite coagulant produced from red mud for Chlorella vulgaris harvest. Red mud composite was feasible and has potential in harvesting microalgae but it take more than 2 hour to coagulate. To optimize the feasibility, the red mud composite is modified by adding chloride salt (Al, Fe) which concludes the addition of AlCl3 showed better results compared to FeCl3. The coagulation efficiency was investigated through influence of dosage, pH of culture, pH of system and coagulation time. Under influence of different dosage of Al composite, 0.5g/L composite acquired 83.6% of biomass recovery. The percentage of recovery increased with increase of pH of the culture at 10 where the percentage of recovery at the highest of 87.6%. The results also showed that this modified composite can coagulate up till 92% within 25 minutes by maintaining pH of system at approximately 6.8.
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Keywords
Production of Red Mud composite , for harvesting Chlorella Vulgaris