Effect of Magnetic Field and Moringa Seed Powder on Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of magnetic field (MF) and moringa seed powder (MSP) on wastewater treatment. Wastewater causes environmental and river pollution that are harmful to aquatic animals and toxic to man. Domestic wastewater was collected from the bathroom, University of Ilorin male hostel (Compound G). The wastewater was divided into four portions. First portion was allowed to flow through MF (100 mT) for 40, 60 and 80s. Second portion, 4 litres of the wastewater was poured into 5 litres capacity containers and 100, 150 and 200 mg/L of MSP was added to each container with 2 replicates. Third portion, 100, 150 and 200 mg/L of MSP was added to the wastewater after the wastewater was passed through MF for 40, 60 and 80 s and the fourth portion was the control experiment. Physical, chemical and bacteriological properties of the wastewater were determined after 2 hours. The range of reduction in turbidity for MSP, MF, combination of MSP and MF compared with the control experiment were 3.08-18.46, 9.00-23.08 and 20.03-23.08%, respectively. Reductions of total coliform were 84.21-88.42%, 36.84-47.37% and 75.26-87.89%. The range in reduction ammonia nitrate for MSP, MF, combination of MSP and MF compared with control experiment were 2.96-9.63, 0.00-1.48 and 6.67-8.89%. The values of BOD were 0.82-7.14, 0.82-2.45 and 2.24-8.37%. The results indicated that combination of MF and MSP  reduced physicochemical and bacteriological properties of the wastewater. Combination of MSP and MF is recommended for treating wastewater before discharging into rivers.

Keywords: wastewater, wastewater treatment, moringa, magnetized wastewater, water pollution