Influence of Contact Time on Effectiveness of Recycle Alum Sludge as Pollutant Removal

Abstract

Presence of phosphorus in agriculture and other activities near the water bodies, lead to
algae growth and other aquatic plants in a pond. Alum sludge can be converted into solid
waste material and is useful application as low cost effectiveness removal in wastewater
treatment facilities. This finding focuses on an innovation approach to treat the wastewater
from low-cost adsorption material and promoting the green technology for the
preservation of environment. This study attempts to determine effectiveness of dried alum
sludge as media to remove phosphorus from different kind of water sample. Three types of
wastewater were selected; synthetic phosphate solution, wastewater and river water. The
continuous flow test approach with constant hydraulic loading is used in this study. Two
condition of alum sludge height was employed i.e. 12 cm and 24 cm. Alum sludge was
grind and sieved through 2.36 mm sieve size in dry condition. The initial phosphate
concentration was set for 2.6 mg/L. Concentration PO4 sample from river and wastewater
plant were 1.66 mg/L and 2.78 mg/L respectively. Test was monitored over 700 hours or
30 days with constant flow rate. The results indicated that different removal rate obtained
from different height of alum sludge. The maximum percentage removal ranges from 70%
to 95%. The results indicate that dried alum sludge from water treatment plant has great
potential as to remove the phosphate from synthetic water, river water and wastewater.