Enhanced water treatment by Moringa oleifera seeds extract as the bio-coagulant: role of the extraction method

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of protein extraction from mature-dried Moringa oleifera seeds by three methods: simple pulverization, oil-extraction, and protein-fractionation. Using an electrochemically activated solution as a solvent of the protein extraction process was found to be an extremely effective method due to its significant performance, environmental qualities, chemicals reduction usage and low cost. The chemical composition of protein-fractionation (MO3) indicated that the percent of protein was high at 84% ±0.5% while the percentage of oil was low at 0.5% ±0.1%. This leads to increased efficiency in clarifying low turbidity water. In addition, the new bio-coagulant tackled the limitation of previous research, namely the loading of organic compounds into the water after the coagulation process by Moringa oleifera seeds. Three substances extracted from Moringa oleifera seeds can be used as an alternative to the commercial coagulant polyaluminum chloride (PAC) for water treatment in both lake water and municipal wastewater. The results showed that MO3 showed the highest efficiency in removing turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and Escherichia coli from lake water at 99.3%, 98.46%, and 100%, respectively, compared with results from municipal wastewater at 95.44%, 82.4%, and 99.1%, respectively.