Removal of heavy metal from plating industrial wastewater by sago waste using coagulation method

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of sago waste as a low-cost coagulant agent to remove heavy metal from plating industry and synthetic heavy metals wastewater. In order to know the effectiveness of the sago waste as coagulant agent, there are a few factors had been studied such as the performance of the sago waste on removing heavy metal from wastewater by measuring the percentage of heavy metal removal, the characterization of chemical and physical properties of the sago waste, and the capability of sago waste as coagulant agent. The characterization of the sago waste in this project was done using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). FTIR analysis was used to identify the functional group of treated and untreated sago waste that will be responsible for heavy metals coagulation process. The carboxyl groups plays important roles to remove the heavy metals contain in the wastewater. Next, for sample analysis, the percentage of the heavy metal removal was measured by using Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The experiment was carried out by using jar test equipment. Factors affecting the coagulation process, such as pH and dosage were assessed. For synthetics wastewater, the best coagulant agent is NaOH sago at optimum pH 12 where it achieved 98.50% (0.28 ppm) and 97.22% (0.15 ppm) of zinc and copper removal. However, in the real wastewater, the Nickel and Copper removed are achieved up to 96% (0.02 ppm) and 90% (0.53) respectively by using untreated sago as coagulant agent and the optimum pH was at initial pH 12. But, after the jar-test, the pH was dropped to pH 9