Plants as natural organic coagulant powders for winery wastewater treatment

Winery wastewater (WW) is the waste product of many independent processing and cleaning operations in wineries, which annually generate a large volume of wastewater. Traditionally, it’s used metallic based coagulants such as ferric chloride and aluminium sulfate, for the treatment of winery wastewater by coagulation-flocculation-decantation (CFD), however, the release of metal residuals in the wastewater during the CFD process, may result in adverse effects for the receiving water body. To avoid these consequences, the aim of this work was to study the application of the pollen of Acacia dealbata Link., the acorn skin and the peeled acorn of Quercus ilex L. the seeds of Platanus x acerifólia (Aiton) Willd. and the seeds of Tanacetum vulgare L. as natural organic coagulant powders (NOCP). The NOCPs were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which showed the presence of protein, lipids and carbohydrates and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which showed that these organic materials exhibited a heterogeneous and relatively porous morphology. Under the best operational conditions, as follows: pH = 3.0, dosage = 0.1 g/L, fast mix (rpm/min) = 120/1, slow mix (rpm/min) = 20/30, [PVPP] = 45 mg/L, sedimentation time = 12 h, temperature = 298 K, the pollen of Acacia dealbata Link. achieved a turbidity, total suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand removal of 97.6, 94.7 and 46.6 %, respectively, similar to aluminium sulfate (99.5, 95.3 and 43.5 %, respectively). However, the pollen of Acacia dealbata Link. achieved low Al leaching value regarding aluminium sulfate (0.10 and 739.43 mg Al/L, respectively). Based in the results, it is concluded that that NOCPs are an innovative urban horticulture development for a sustainable world, because they are economic, efficient and environmentally safer for the treatment of winery wastewater.