Author : Ravikumar K and Sheeja A K

The seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree contain 35-45% of oil. The seed oil, known as “Ben oil” can be used for the production of biodiesel. The Moringa oleifera biodiesel is an environmentally sustainable fuel. The residue originated from the oil extraction (cake), can be used as fertilizer and animal feed. Currently another significant use of this byproduct concerns to the removal of pollutants in aqueous systems for their coagulant, clarifier and adsorbent properties due to the presence of some functional group such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, amines, phenolic, methoxyl, hydroxyl aliphatic groups etc. The adsorbed particles coagulate and settle down as precipitate in the process of purification of water.Coagulation with aqueous extract of Moringa oliefera seed cake powder reduced the fluoride concentration of fluoridated water below 1mg/L but the turbidity after coagulation was very high which was removed by double filtration. When composite coagulants prepared by adding alum and starch with Moringa oleifera was used for coagulation of fluoridated water, the fluoride concentration reduced below 1mg/L and the turbidity is within the standard limit of drinking water. So the composite coagulant helps to remove fluoride effectively without any significant increase in turbidity of the de-fluoridated water.

Keywords: Moringa oleifera, Oil extraction, Biodiesel, Seed cake coagulation, Composite coagulants, fluoride removal, Aluminium.

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.3 (June- 2014)