Effectiveness of Banana Peel and Moringa oleifera Seed Powders for the Treatment of Wastewater from an Institutional Kitchen

Abstract

The demand for fresh water is continued to increase at a rapid pace due to the growing population,
increasing urbanization and the constant economic growth. Fresh water scarcity can be overcome t o an extent by using
fresh water sources for drinking purposes and treated wastewater for various domestic purposes. Conventional treatment
techniques are extremely expensive for developing countries like India. Therefore, an urgent need for cost effective
methods of treatment and recycling of wastewater are highly desirable. Taking these into consideration, we have worked
on the effectiveness of naturally available cheap materials as a coagulant and a bio -adsorbent. The treatment process is
a two stage processes:, in the first stage Moringa oleifera extract was used as the coagulant or banana peel powder was
used as the adsorbent and in the second stage coagulated water was filtered using constructed filter. The wastewater
generated at campus hostel was used for the laboratory analysis. The jar test was used to determine the optimum
coagulant dosage of banana peel powder and Moringa oleifera seed extract. The water quality analysis of raw water,
treated water using M. oleifera and banana peel powder without and with filtration was carried out. It was observed that
for both Moringa oleifera extract and Banana peel powder, there was 14 % increase in pH after coagulation and
flocculation and pH increased to 100% after filtration, as well as 65% of tubidity, 58% of chlorides was removed during
first stage , and followed by filtration has a percentage reduction of 95% and 93% respectively. The value of hardness
showed an increase. Also first stage treatment led to 21% decrease in COD and 54% decrease in BOD and fil tration led
to 79 % removal of COD and 99% removal of BOD. The DO increased from 0 to 4.33 mg/l using Banana peel powder
and 5.12 mg/l using Moringa extract. TDS of the sample remained stable and the TSS value of the sample decreased by
91%. The colour and odour of the wastewater was also completely removed. Most of the water quality parameters were
within permissible limit for the irrigation requirements.