Use of the Cactus Cladodes Mucilage (Opuntia Ficus Indica) As an Eco-Friendly Flocculants: Process Development and Optimization using Stastical Analysis

The Opuntia ficus indica mucilage was an abundant and a low cost product. In the present paper, it was tested as an eco-friendly flocculants for textile waste water treatment. Its performance as flocculants in decolorization, COD removal and turbidity abatement was checked. The natural product was characterized using UV-Vis and Infra-Red spectroscopy. The study of the effect, followed by an optimization and modeling analysis, of some experimental parameters on the coagulation-flocculation performance, using cactus mucilage combined with aluminum sulfate (as a coagulant), showed that the best conditions for flocculation process were given for a pH equal to 7.25, flocculants dose of about 40 mg/L, flocculation mixing speed of about 30rpm and flocculation mixing time of about 11 min. This gives a decolorization equal to 99.84%, COD removal of about 88.76% and turbidity abatement of about 91.66%. The comparison between the flocculation performance of commercial flocculants and the bio-flocculants agent exhibited that the latter has the highest pollution removal.