TY - JOUR ID - 822 TI - Use of the Cactus Cladodes Mucilage (Opuntia Ficus Indica) As an Eco-Friendly Flocculants: Process Development and Optimization using Stastical Analysis JO - International Journal of Environmental Research JA - IJER LA - en SN - 1735-6865 AU - Bouatay, F. AU - Mhenni, F. AD - Research Unit of Applied Chemistry & Environment, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Monastir, Environment Street, 5019, Monastir, Tunisia Y1 - 2014 PY - 2014 VL - 8 IS - 4 SP - 1295 EP - 1308 KW - Opuntia ficus indica KW - Bio-flocculants KW - Optimal conditions KW - Flocculation performance KW - Statistical analysis DO - 10.22059/ijer.2014.822 N2 - The Opuntia ficus indica mucilage was an abundant and a low cost product. In the presentpaper, it was tested as an eco-friendly flocculants for textile waste water treatment. Its performance asflocculants in decolorization, COD removal and turbidity abatement was checked. The natural product wascharacterized using UV-Vis and Infra-Red spectroscopy. The study of the effect, followed by an optimizationand modeling analysis, of some experimental parameters on the coagulation-flocculation performance, usingcactus mucilage combined with aluminum sulfate (as a coagulant), showed that the best conditions for flocculationprocess were given for a pH equal to 7.25, flocculants dose of about 40 mg/L, flocculation mixing speed ofabout 30rpm and flocculation mixing time of about 11min. This gives a decolorization equal to 99.84%, CODremoval of about 88.76% and turbidity abatement of about 91.66%. The comparison between the flocculationperformance of commercial flocculants and the bio-flocculants agent exhibited that the latter has the highestpollution removal. UR - https://ijer.ut.ac.ir/article_822.html L1 - https://ijer.ut.ac.ir/article_822_15a052324d6b84181184bdd275322bb6.pdf ER -