Extraction And Purification of The Active Substance Contained In The Aloe Vera For Their Use As a Natural Flocculant

Abstract

The aim of this study is the use of organic substances (Aloe Vera juice) as flocculant, the obtained coagulant aid is used to reduce the water turbidity intended for consumption. The latter is obtained from the drinking water treatment plant of Oued El Athmania, Mila, Algeria: the characterization of this water shows that the initial turbidity and suspended solids were 5.5 NTU and 7.4 mg/L, respectively.

            The effectiveness of Aloe Vera juice is tested at the laboratory where aluminum sulfate is used as a coagulant. The role of the latter is the destabilization of negatively charged colloids present in the water to be treated, and the Aloe Vera juice which is used as bio-flocculant favors the agglomeration and the formation of flocs to improve the turbidity removal efficiency. The Aloe Vera juice is obtained after cleaning and grinding the Aloe Vera leaves. The solution obtained is diluted to 10% before use.   

The results obtained show that the reduction of turbidity is 86.9% with a maximum reduction of suspended matter 72.97% for a dose of 40 mg/L of aluminum sulfate and pH 7.2. The addition of Aloe Vera juice increases the turbidity reduction to 89.27% and the suspended solids to 77.02%. In this case the concentration of sludge produced was about 0.847 g/L. In this study, several parameters were measured such as pH, organic matter, alkalinity, total carbon ...etc.

In this study, the types of active substance in the Aloe Vera was identified using FTIR and XRD.