Abstract
The possibility of using Opuntia ficus indica fruit juice (OFIFJ) as a bioflocculant for conditioning the synthetic kaolin sludge and sewage sludge (region Oran, Algeria, and Pau, France) was studied. Turbidity of the supernatant, dryness of the sludge cake, and total time of filtration (TTF) were examined parameters. Using vacuum filtration, lime was also tested as a chemical conditioner and gives good results on Lescar (France) sewage sludge in terms of cake’s dryness, filtrate quality, turbidity (13.54%), and total time of filtration (TTF = 85.29%), comparing to the industrial polymer (Sedifloc 408C; turbidity; 8.33% and TTF: 2.94%). For the sewage sludge of Oran (Algeria), the results obtained with OFIFJ were compared to those obtained with the cladodes juice of the same plant OFIC, and also with a cationic polymer (Superfloc 8396). For an optimum dosage, it showed that OFIFJ has a flocculation activity as same as the cladodes juice OFIC for sludge conditioning and gives better results in terms of turbidity (dosage of 22.4 g/kg DM: 3.7 NTU for OFIC, dosage of 8.36: 3.63 NTU for OFIFJ. Dryness was enhanced from 14.91 to 22.93% (OFIC 16 g/kg DM) and to 24.48% (OFIF 20.9 g/kg DM) but for TTF, we found the opposite. In fact, this plant showed to be an available, biodegradable, and non-toxic flocculant. For kaolin synthetic sludge (30%), the optimum dosages of those conditioners were found to be 0.066 g kg−1 for OFIC, comparing between vacuum filtration and filtration compression; turbidity was enhanced for both techniques, contrary to dryness. Concerning the Oran city sewage sludge, both turbidity and dryness were optimized. Same thing for the France sewage sludge, all the studied parameters were enhanced with the two studied bioflocculants.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are also grateful to SEOR (Oran Water and Sanitation Company, Algeria) laboratory, for provision of the research facilities.
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This research project was financially supported by Exceptional National Program (PNE), Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research-Algeria. This project was also supported by Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP-2023R140) King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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H. Houcine, A. Debab, and A. Benettayeb wrote the initial manuscript, prepared the figures and tables. All authors corrected, formulated, and designed the review. All authors reviewed the manuscript and corrected the figures and tables.
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Hocine, H., Debab, A., Benettayeb, A. et al. Effectiveness of Opuntia ficus indica (cactus) fruit juice for sludge conditioning. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11766-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11766-w