CHARACTERISATION OF Moringa Oleifera FOR PURIFICATION OF TREATED WATER SLUDGE

Proper disposal of treated water sludge is one of the main challenges water treatment Plants are facing globally. This entails disposing of sludge in such a way that it will not be harmful to the environment due to the chemicals used during the treatment of the water. The disposal of sludge conditioned by chemical polymers has an adverse effect on health and the environment. The use of natural polymers (such as wool polymer) has been explored to reduce adverse effects that come from chemical polymers (polyurethane). Elemental compositions of Moringa Oleifera were distinctive using ultimate analysis, proximate Analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy


INTRODUCTION
In numerous places, it is usual practice to dispose of sludge from water Treatment Plants with insufficient or no treatment at all.Disposal of untreated Sludge directly into the environment affects the recipient due to solid depositions and the chemical composition of the sludge.Therefore, strict waste discharge standards are imminent; hence there is a need for appropriate treatment of the sludge (Kaggwa et al., 2011).
Disposal of debris obtained from water Treatment Plants is one of the dominant problems most treatment plants appear not to overcome.This can be traced to the steady rise of waste, correspondingly to meet the need for water and treatment of water for human consumption.Waste from water treatment (Sludge) is made up of inorganic and organic compounds in gaseous, liquid, and solid states, which still differ in physical and chemical peculiarity relative to the treatment emissary used and the sources of raw water (Odimegwu et al., 2018).
In many countries, sludge is a very serious problem due to its high cost in treatment, and risk to human health and the entire environment.Sludge shows frequent difficult problems in cities of all dimensions due to the scarcity of proper disposal areas, increasing labour costs, and environmental concerns (Anyakora, 2013).The aforementioned (lower Usuma treated water sludge) waste needs to be disposed of appropriately following approved standards and regulations which stipulate the quantity of waste generated be reduced, reused, and recycled to minimize pollution (NESREA, 2009).
Hence Purification of treated water sludge becomes necessary.There are numerous available chemical conditioners especially utilized in the water industry, usually aluminum Sulphate, ferric chloride, lime/polymer, etc.Nevertheless, the shortcoming of chemical treatment of the sludge is the risk linked with using biofuels for terrestrial applications (Viera et al., 2010).Currently in Nigeria, most water treatment plants dispose of sludge by revolving it to the watercourse and stockpiling it in or thereabouts the treatment plants without further treatment whichever counter local and International best practices for environmental sustainability (Anyakora, 2013).
Therefore, a natural conditioner can be useful for the treatment of water and wastewater.Utilizing greener processes to purify waste is becoming very popular because the processes are environmentally viable and offer a wide array of other advantages, including less cost, less generation of derivatives, higher biodegradability, and more environmentally friendly.
Many researchers have also identified the presence of an active anti-microbial agent in Moringa Oleifera (James, 1995) moreover, it is now evident that research in the study of the utilization of Moringa Oleifera in purifying water treatment sludge is yet to be fully harnessed.This inference also necessitated this research work which seeks to evaluate the potential of a natural conditioner and anti-microbial agent for the purifying water treatment sludge.Such is the case with Moringa Oleifera which is utilized as a conditioner in the purification of drinking water treatment sludge.This study aims to explore the potential utilization Moringa Oleifera in the purification of Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Sludge.OJES 4(2) | 0 3 Moringa Olefeira, and Sludge without Moringa Olefeira were evenly dispersed in 200 mg of spectroscopic grade KBr to record the spectra.The sample spectra were recorded in 500 to 4000 cm -1 wavenumbers.

This
Ultimate analysis procedure, the powdered sample of Moringa Oleifera was introduced to CHN628 Series elemental determinator and CKIC 5E-S3200 Coulomb Sulphur Analyzer operated using S3200, and the following elemental composition was determined; the carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N) and the total sulphur (S) content; 0.10 mg of the sample was placed in a tin capsule, heated at 980°C with a constant flow of helium.Sludge characterization; Liquid sludge was collected from the water treatment sludge dewatered and dried.The following properties were analyzed; condition of sample, moisture content, Ph, colour, temperature, drying time, and settling rate.Table 2 shows the result of the presence of nutrient percentage for the Moringa Oleifera seed.The result was compared with the result found by (Barakat and Ghazal, 2016) and some of the parameters such as Carbohydrate and Ash show an agreement.

ULTIMATE ANALYSIS
The elemental composition of Moringa Oleifera was determined and presented in Table 3 below.

FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FT-IR)
The results of the FT-IR spectrum were presented in Figures 4 to 6 with many wavenumbers depending on the analyzed sample.

Figure 8: FT-IR Spectra of Moringa Oleifera
The FTIR Spectrum of Moringa Oleifera in Fig. 8 shows the five different positions and Intensity.The absorption peak at 2361.43 cm -1 is assigned to the stretching vibration of the Acetylene functional group (C≡N) bond with medium intensity, the absorption peak at 1559.20 cm -1 is colligated to the stretching vibration of the primary amine functional group (C=N) bond with weak medium intensity, the absorption peak of aryl disulfides functional group at 448.15, 431.19 and 411.43 cm -1 are S-S stretching bond.The FTIR Spectrum of Sludge without Moringa Seed in Fig. 9 shows many vibrational stretching, bending at absorption peaks, and their functional group bond as follows 3690.stretched at S-S bond at thiols and thio-substituted compounds and finally the result reveals that 420.60, 415.69 and 408.78 cm -1 are out of plane symmetry the result show similarity with the finding of (Coates, 2000).and 412.23cm -1 are out of plane symmetry, the result compared with the experimental result by (Coates, 2000).

CONCLUSION
The characterization of Moringa Oleifera seeds for the purification of treated water Sludge and compositions investigated in this work using ED-XRF, FTIR, proximate and ultimate analysis are adequate.The results of this work have demonstrated that Moringa Oleifera can be used in the purification of water treatment sludge and it is very effective in treating Turbidity to be within Nigeria standard of 5.0NTU.
work employed the use of the Taguchi Design of Experiment for the Jar test of the sludge sample.The experimental design comprised three factors (Concentration, mixing time, and mixing speed) and Twenty-seven represented in Taguchi array a s 3 3 = 27.The responses are Turbidity, Conductivity, Biological Oxygen Demand, and Chemical Oxygen Demand.The materials used in this work are LUDWTP Sludge and Dried powder Moringa Oleifera.Sludge samples for the analysis were collected in clean plastic containers at different stages of the lower Usuma dam water treatment sludge located along Dutse-Bwari Road Abuja.The Moringa Oleifera were purchased at Bwari Market, Bwari FCT, shells were manually removed, dried at room temperature for 2 days, grounded in a household blender with steel blades, and stored in a container.

Figure 9 :
Figure 9: FT-IR Spectra of Dry Sludge

Figure 10 :
Figure 10: FT-IR Spectra of Dry Sludge treated with Moringa Oleifera The FTIR Spectrum of Sludge with Moringa Oleifera in Fig. 10 shows fifteen absorptions at different intensities, the absorption at 3691.05 & 3619.61cm-1 stretched at hydroxy group (O-H) bond, 3364.16cm -1 stretched at aliphatic secondary amine (N-H) bond with narrow intensity, 2359.29cm - peak stretched at carbonyl imino functional group (C≡C) bond, 1595.78cm - stretched at open chain imino functional group C=C-C bond, 1457.76cm - peak bend at C-H bond, 1032.54 & 1002.88cm - stretched at C-F bond, 910.26cm -1 peak stretched at P-O-C bond, 668.33cm -1 vibrational peak stretched at disulfides C-S bond, 533.10cm -1 absorption peak colligated at C-I bond, 457.17 & 447.10cm -1 peaks stretched at disulfides S-S bond and finally the graph shows that 420.60

Table 1 :
Characteristics of Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant Sludge.
Table1shows the characteristics of the sludge sample.From Table1it is obvious that the sludge has high moisture content hence the need to condition it.Also, the pH is slightly alkaline indicating that it can work well with Moringa Oleifera since the pH was found to be 7.4 which means the sludge is alkaline.

Table 3
(Mahmet, 2019) elemental composition of dry Moringa Oleifera the result shows that carbon has a higher composition than any other element present in the Moringa Oleifera this is due to the amount of Carbon dioxide that the Moringa tree absorbed.The result also shows that Moringa Oleifera has less percentage of Hydrocarbonate composition, the result shows in agreement with the result found by(Mahmet, 2019)on Nitrogen composition.

Table 5
shows the physicochemical result of the sludge treated with Moringa Oleifera, it observed that based on the percentage removal, Moringa Oleifera is effective for reduction of the treated sample to the level of Nigerian standard of Turbidity 5NTU (NESREA 2009).