TITLE OF EXPERIMENT : JAR TEST

DATE OF EXPERIMENT : 30 APRIL 2020

GROUP : 6C5 A
GROUP MEMBERS 1. FARRAH FARINA BINTI MOHD SOFIAN (2018438062)
2. FATIN AFIQAH BINTI JEFFERY (2018227156)
3. SITI NOOR AFFEZAH BINTI ABD KAHAR (2018441714)
4. SITI NURIRENE SAZANA BINTI MOHD NOR (2018264874)

LECTURER : DR. SHARIFAH ABDULLAH

LEVEL OF OPENESS :2

MARKS COMMENT

INTRODUCTION

BASIC CONCEPTS

METHODOLOGY 1 2 3 4 5

RESULTS & ANALYSIS 1 2 3 4 5

DISCUSSION 1 2 3 4 5

CONCLUSION 1 2 3 4 5

ORGANIZATION 1 2 3 4 5

TOTAL MARKS

1
 TABLE OF CONTENT

NO DESCRIPTION PAGE

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 OBJECTIVE 3

3 LEARNING OUTCOMES 3

4 PROBLEM STATEMENT 4

5 APPARATUS 4

6 PROCEDURE 5

7 DATA ANALYSIS 6-8

8 DISCUSSION 9-10

9 CONCLUSION 11

10 REFERENCES 11

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INTRODUCTION
Water treatment is any process that makes water more acceptable for a specific end-use, which
may be drinking, industry, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other
uses. Water treatment should remove existing water contaminants or so reduce their
concentration that their water becomes fit for its desired end use, which may be safely returning
used water to the environment. Treatment for drinking water production involves the removal
of contaminants from raw water to produce water] that is pure enough for human consumption
without any short term or long-term risk of any adverse health effect. Substances that are
removed during the process of drinking water treatment include suspended solids, bacteria,
algae, viruses, fungi, and minerals such as iron and manganese. The processes involved in
removing the contaminants include physical processes such as settling and filtration, chemical
processes such as disinfection and coagulation and biological processes such as slow sand
filtration. Measures taken to ensure water quality not only relate to the treatment of the water,
but to its conveyance and distribution after treatment. It is therefore common practice to have
residual disinfectants in the treated water in order to kill any bacteriological contamination
during distribution. World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines are a general set of
standards intended to be applied where better local standards are not implemented. More
rigorous standards apply across Europe, the USA and in most other developed countries
followed throughout the world for drinking water quality requirements.

OBJECTIVES

1. To determine optimum dosage of coagulant

2. To measure the water quality parameter such as turbidity, pH and color before and after
the Jar Test.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the laboratory activities, students would be able to:
1. Define the term coagulation and flocculation
2. Identify optimum dosage of coagulant and correlate with actual water treatment process.
3. Analyse test data and present the solution in proper technical format.
4. Work in a group to undertake the task and produce the relevant technical report.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT
Surface waters, containing colloidal particles, are normally treated by coagulation-flocculation
followed by clarification process. As a group you will be given TWO (2) types of coagulants.
You are required to carry out jar test on the water samples collected by your group using
the appropriate apparatus available in the laboratory.

MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

1. Water Sample
2. Aluminium Sulphate
3. Ferric Chloride
4. Jar Test Apparatus
5. Beakers
6. Pipette
7. pH meter
8. Turbidimeter

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PROCEDURE

1. 1000ml of water discharge is poured into each beaker.

2. The beakers are labelled as 1 to 6.
3. The beakers are positioned at the jar test apparatus and aluminium sulphate is added
according to dosage below:

Beaker 1 2 3 4 5 6
Dosage of Coagulant (mL) 0 2 4 6 8 10

4. For rapid mixing, the stirrer is agitated at velocity 100r/min for 3 minutes. This is to
ensure the dispersion of coagulant throughout the sample.
5. The agitation speed is reduced at 40r/min for 15min to allow flocculation to take place.
6. The floc settling velocity is observed for 10 minutes.
7. Before usage of turbidimeter and pH meter container it is obligatory to wash it with
distilled water and drain it well being careful not to leave residual impurities.
8. 25ml of clear liquid is taken from each beaker to turbidimeter and pH meter container,
being careful not to agitate the sedimented flocs.
9. The container is filled with the sample which turbidity and pH are to be measured.
10. The turbidity and pH are measured while color is measured by using platinum-cobalt
method.
11. Step 1 to 10 are repeated by using ferric chloride as coagulant.

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RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Table 1: Result using Aluminium Sulphate as a coagulant in JAR test experiment

Dosage of
0 2 4 6 8 10
Coagulant (mL)
Parameter / jar 1 2 3 4 5 6
Turbidity (NTU) 14 9.5 6.0 5.7 8.0 13.0
pH 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5
Color(Pt/Co) 230.0 190.0 100.0 90.0 95.0 110.0

Turbidity (NTU) vs Dosage of

Aluminium Sulphate (mL)
16
14 optimum dose
12
10
8
turbidity (NTU)
6
4
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 1.1: Turbidity (NTU) vs Dosage of Aluminium Sulphate (mL)

pH vs Dosage of Aluminium Sulphate

(mL)
8
7
6
5
4
pH
3
2
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 1.2: pH vs Dosage of Aluminium Sulphate (mL)

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 color (pt/Co) vs Dosage of Aluminium
Sulphate (mL)
250

200

150
colour (pt/Co)
100

50

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 1.3: color (pt/Co) vs Dosage of Aluminium Sulphate (mL)

Table 2: Result using Ferric Chloride as a coagulant in JAR test experiment

Dosage of
0 2 4 6 8 10
Coagulant (mL)
Parameter / jar 1 2 3 4 5 6
Turbidity (NTU) 14 6.5 5.5 6.0 7.0 9.0
pH 5.0 6.0 7.5 7.0 6.5 6.0
Color(Pt/Co) 230.0 130.0 50.0 60.0 100.0 150.0

Turbidity (NTU) vs Dosage of Ferric

Chloride (mL)
16
14
optimum dose
12
10
8
Turbidity (NTU)
6
4
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 2.1 : Turbidity (NTU) vs Dosage of Ferric Chloride (mL)

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 pH vs Dosage of Ferric Chloride (mL)
8
7
6
5
4
pH
3
2
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 2.2 : pH vs Dosage of Ferric Chloride (mL)

Color (Pt/Co) vs Dosage of Ferric

Chloride (mL)
250

200

150
Color (Pt/Co)
100

50

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 2.3 : Color (Pt/Co) vs Dosage of Ferric Chloride (mL)

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DISCUSSION

Jar test had been conducted to measure the water quality parameter such as turbidity, pH, color,
and it is often used in the water treatment plant to determine the optimum dosage of coagulant.
In this experiment, the result obtained shows the effect of different dosage of coagulant in water
quality parameter. Two types of coagulants were used which known as Aluminium Sulphate
and Ferric Chloride. The amount dosage of coagulant used is between 0 to 10 mL. During the
experiment, there are no coagulant added on first beaker since it serves as a control beaker.

Turbidity shows the cloudiness of water that measures the presence of suspended material in
water. This can be shown either it is high or low in turbidity. High turbidity indicates that the
water contains a lot of particles suspended which gives a cloudy appearance while low turbidity
indicates fewer particles which give a clearer appearance in the water. Based on the graph of
turbidity, the trend in both coagulants is almost the same where the highest value of turbidity
for aluminium sulphate and ferric chloride dosage is 0 mL where the value is 14 NTU. The
value of turbidity then started to drop at the dosage of 6 mL with a value of 5.7 NTU for
aluminium sulphate while ferric chloride dosage is at 4 mL with a value of 5.5 NTU. The lowest
value of turbidity shows the optimum dosage for both coagulants. According to the National
Water Quality Standard for Malaysia in table 1, the standard value of turbidity is 5 NTU.
Therefore, both results are not acceptable since it is more than 5 NTU where it should be less
or equal to 5 NTU for drinking water.

pH value in water stands for the potential of hydrogen where it is one of the most important in
water quality parameters that reflects the acidity, basic, and alkalinity in water. From the graph
of pH, the dosage for aluminium sulphate shows a clear upward trend from 0 mL with a value
of 5 until 10 mL with a value of 7.5. The graph for the dosage of ferric chloride had increased
slightly but started to drop after the 4 mL dosage which is 7.5. Somehow, the standard shows
that the pH value is between the ranges of 6.5 – 8.5. Therefore, both dosage of coagulant for
pH value is acceptable since the result is between ranges.

The physical characteristics of water such as color are the measure to indicate the presence of
dissolved organic material which obtain from the domestic waste or decaying of vegetation.
The unit to measure the color of the water is in the Platinum-Cobalt Scale (Pt/Co scale). The
graph shows a decrease value from 0 mL that is 230 Pt/Co to 6 mL with a value of 90 Pt/Co
for aluminium sulphate dosage. Somehow, it slowly increases from 90 Pt/Co to 110 Pt/Co. As
for the ferric chloride dosage graph, it drops gradually from 230 Pt/Co for 0 mL of dosage to

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50 Pt/Co for 4 mL dosage but then quickly rises to 150 Pt/Co for 10 mL of dosage. From the
result, it shows that the optimum dosage for aluminium sulphate is 6 mL where the value is 90
Pt/Co while the optimum dosage for ferric chloride is 4 mL with a value of 50 Pt/Co. The
standard shows that both values are acceptable but still need to undergo conventional treatment.

Table 3: National Water Quality Standard for Malaysia

Table 4: Water Classes and Uses

Safety precaution is needed during experimenting. Wear gloves and goggle to avoid any
chemical to enter the eyes and irrigates the hands. Make sure that the eye level is perpendicular
to the measurement to obtain an accurate result. The label must be checked to avoid any mistake
in preparing the sample.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we have done the jar test on the water sample which is being testing with several
dosage of coagulant. Two types of coagulants were used which known as Aluminium Sulphate
and Ferric Chloride. At the end of this experiment we have determined the optimum dosage of
coagulant and measure the water quality parameters such as turbidity, color and pH for the
water sample.

The optimum dosage for turbidity parameter for aluminium sulphate is 6 mL with a value 5.7
NTU while ferric chloride dosage is at 4 mL with a value of 5.5 NTU. Second parameter that
being measured is pH. The optimum dosage for aluminium sulphate is 10 mL with a value of
pH 7.5, while ferric chloride has lower value of optimum dosage compare to the aluminium
sulphate which is 4mL of pH 7.5. The last parameter that being observed in this experiment is
color. The optimum dosage for aluminium sulphate is 6 mL where the value is 90 Pt/Co while
the optimum dosage for ferric chloride is 4 mL with a value of 50 Pt/Co. The result has been
compared with the water quality standard for Malaysia and have shown that the water sample
is in class 1 which are suitable for the water supply and conservation for natural environment.

REFERENCES
1. Department of Environment. (2019). “National Water Quality Standards for
Malaysia”. Retrieved from https://doe.gov.my/portalv1/wp-
content/uploads/2019/05/Standard-Kualiti-Air-Kebangsaan. Pdf

2. Nayla Hassan Omer.(2019).”Water Quality Parameters”. Retrieved from

https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/water-quality-parameters

3. Giridhar V S S Mittapalli. (2017).” A Jar Test Study On The Use Of Alum And Ferric
Chloride For Turbidity Removal”. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/317091840_A_Jar_Test_Study_on_the_use_of_Alum_and_Ferric_Chlori
de_for_Turbidity_Removal

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