UNIVERSIDAD VERACRUZANA

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS QUÍMICAS

INGENIERÍA AMBIENTAL

EXPERIENCIA EDUCATIVA
OPERACIONES FÍSICAS UNITARIAS

DOCENTE
DR. MARIO RAFAEL GIRALDI DÍAZ

ALUMNO
GARCÍA MARTÍN DEL CAMPO GARCÍA ABRIL

XALAPA VER., A 7 de MAYO DE 2018

Analysis of:

Suspended Solid, Color, COD and Oil and Grease Removal from
Biodiesel Wastewater by Coagulation and Flocculation Processes

Once we realize that fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas and coal are limited,
with the increase in energy demand we witness today, we realize that there is an
increscent urgency to search for new renewable and sustainable energy sources
that could produce enough energy with an acceptable safety (human and
environmental), efficiency and reliable criteria.

Lately, biodiesel has attached much attention due to it has many advantages. For
example, it brings a different alternative to petroleum. It’s also a non-toxic and
renewable fuel that offers a favorable energetic balance, biodegradable and burns
with a low sulfur, carbon monoxide and aromatic- free emissions profile and it is
fewer harmful emissions.

Biodiesel is produced by transesterification reaction of triglycerides from vegetable

oils or fats with alcohol like methanol and ethanol in presence of a catalytic
homogeny base like NaOH or KOH to yield fatty acid alkyl esters. Finally, the last
process in the biodiesel generation consists in introduce water into the fuel to
remove impurities like suspended matter and catalysts presents in it. This last step
is repeated around 4 times, dependent on the quantity of impurities in the methyl
ester, and around 90 liters of wastewater is generated here.

Most of times the biodiesel wastewater is dark yellowish cream in color, highly
turbid, pungent smelling and has high organic load as seeds, with high levels of
chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, oil, high suspended and
dissolved solids, it also has high amount of sodium, nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium.

As such this kind of wastewater treatment is very difficult, there are necessary
some supportive physic-chemical methods. For example, coagulation-flocculation
is frequently one of the most used.
In this method, some coagulants are added in order to destabilize the colloidal
particles and then they could be agglomerated easier into larger settable flocs.

This study objective’s was to determine the efficiency of coagulation/flocculation

process for the removal of suspended solids, color and oil and grass from biodiesel
wastewater using aluminum sulfate, polyaluminum chloride, ferric chloride and
ferric sulfate; and also determine what is the optimal coagulant dosage on this
process.

In the study, biodiesel wastewater was used as feed. It was collected from a plant
in a Malaysian university. The plant uses palm oil as feedstock and an alkali-
catalyzed transterification process.

The sample was kept under refrigeration at 4°C to avoid the fast degradation of
organic matter, and after analyze its characteristics they were reflected on this
table:

It shows the values gotten from chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, color,
quantity of oil and greases, and pH.

Experimental development consisted basically in a jar tester comprises of six

motor, equipped with 6 beakers of 1 liter volume. Twelve beakers positioned on
magnetic stirrers and the addition of a specific dosage of coagulant. The pH value
of 500 ml biodiesel wastewater sample was adjusted to 7, by using H2SO4 or
NaOH.
There was added from 50 to 600 mg/L of coagulant with a difference of 50 mg/L
between each one, to 500 mL biodiesel wastewater sample. Then it was rapidly
mixed for 4 min, and slow mixed for 20 min. the liquid was clarified for 30 minutes
approximately and then it was determinate COD, SS, color and oil and grease to
make a reliable coagulant dosage study. The experiment was repeated for
polyaluminum chloride, ferric chloride and ferric sulfate.

As was expected, dosage was one of the most important parameters to

considerate to determine the optimum condition for the performance of
coagulation. Basically, insufficient or overdosing dosage would result in the poor
performance in flocculation. That’s why it was crucial to determine the optimum
dosage in order to minimize the dosing cost and get the optimum performance.

The optimum dosage of coagulant is defined as a value above which there is no

significant increase in removal efficiency with further addition of coagulant.

For its part, each type of coagulant has its own optimal dose range. Coagulant is a
chemical substance that is added into water to being and accomplishes the
coagulation-flocculation process.

As it was said before, there were some conditions in which the experiment was
carried out, talking about time and mixing speed, pH, range of coagulant dosage,
time of settling, aside from the substance used as coagulant.

The following figures show the results of different dosages of aluminum sulfate,
polyaluminum chloride, ferric chloride and ferric sulfate.
Here we can see how polyaluminum chloride is the most effective alternative
removing suspended solids in the wastewater.

This graphic presents that, again, the polyaluminum chloride removes better the
color than aluminum sulfate, ferric chloride and ferric sulfate, with a 90% of
remotion.
As we can see, the maximum value of COD removal percentage is between 70
and 80, and it’s reached for PAC with 300 mg/L. This means that is the best option
to remove COD too.

In the last figure, we can appreciate that PAC and FeCl3 have approximately the
same removal percentage with the same quantity of each one. Both of them needs
300 mg/L to bring between 90 and 100% of oil and grease removal.
Finally, with base on the results obtained, we can conclude that coagulation and
flocculation is a very useful method as a pre-treatment of biodiesel wastewater,
because it proves to be quite effective un the suspended solids, color and oil and
grease removal. If we want to be more detailed, it should be noted that
Polyaluminum chloride got the jackpot on this removal competition, reaching the
highest percentage in almost all studies with 300 mg/L.