Zakaria, Siti Nor Farhana
(2014)
Peat Water Treatment Using Chitosan-Bentonite,
Surfactant Modified Bentonite And Natural Zeolite.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
The peat swamp is one of the largest wet land coverage in Malaysia. Its ability to
retain water even during drought makes the peat swamp a valuable resource to a
variety of flora and fauna. In light of the recent water shortage issue, peat water was
included in the list as one of the potential alternative water resources. However, due
to its acidic nature, high organic matter and heavy metal (iron) contents, peat water is
unsuitable to be supplied directly to consumers. Therefore, methods to remediate
peat water from pollutant were defined in this study. After a six month monitoring at
the Beriah swamp, Perak, it was found that peat water contains a high concentration
of heavy metal iron, is turbid, brownish and acidic. In this study, two methods were
used i.e. the jar test and the column study. The materials used in the jar test were
chitosan, natural bentonite, modified bentonite, its combination and composite. In the
column study, additional adsorbents such as natural zeolite and activated carbon
were used to enhance the purification of the samples. The experiment was designed
and analysed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in order to determine
their interactions with the samples. Based on the efficiency in remediating peat water
samples, the combination of chitosan-natural bentonite in the jar test was chosen as
the best material. This combination had recorded removal 78% colour, 89% turbidity,
90% iron and 67% Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) in natural peat water pH 4.80.
The flocs formation which was observed in the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
image and the size increment resulting from the Mastersizer analysis had proven that
this combination had an affinity towards the pollutant elements.
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