ABSTRACT

This project explores the utilization of plantain peels, a readily available agricultural waste as a natural coagulant in wastewater treatment processes. The aim is to investigate the effectiveness of plantain peels in removing pollutants from a wastewater sample and compare its performance with conventional coagulants. The study focuses on the sustainable and costeffective aspect of utilizing agricultural waste for water treatment.

The research methodology involves the collection of plantain peels, their preparation, and extraction of coagulating agents. Laboratory experiments (proximate analysis) was conducted to assess the coagulation efficiency of plantain peel extracts in treating the wastewater sample where carbohydrate had the highest value of 59.97%. Key parameters such as turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and total dissolved solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen and BOD are monitored to evaluate the effectiveness of plantain peels in water clarification. This was achieved by using standard methods to treat raw wastewater at different dosages of coagulants (2.5g/l -12.5g/l) from plantain peel powder and comparing its performance with that of alum. 

Results showed that alum performed best in terms of turbidity removal than plantain peel solution. This is because the alum reduced the water turbidity by 92.4% at an optimum dosage of 12.5g/l and plantain peel powder reduced turbidity by only 39.93% at 2.5g/l. Nevertheless, it was noted that at optimum dosage of alum, the water pH was reduced from 6.0 to 2.51 as against the WHO permissible limits (6.5 – 8.5). On the contrary, at the optimum dosage of plantain peel solutions, the pH was raised to 6.44 which is within the permissible limits. It was concluded that plantain peel powder needs modifications in order to improve the turbidity removal capacity before replacing alum although, it could be used in the absence of other conventional coagulant.