Tratamento de efluente de indústria galvânica utilizando a planta Pereskia aculeata miller no processo de coagulação / floculação

Abstract

The electroplating industries in the manufacture of their products generate a large amount of effluent during the baths, to which the pieces are submitted. These effluents are harmful, since they present in their composition heavy metals like chromium. Due to the importance of a suitable treatment for the removal of chromium from this effluent for disposal, the present work aimed to use the mucilage extracted from the fresh leaves of Pereskia aculeata Miller as a biopolymer for the removal of chromium. First, the characterization of the effluent was carried out through a series of solids, COD, BOD, turbidity, atomic absorption and pH. Mucilage of the plant was also characterized with moisture, ash and thermal analysis. Shortly after the characterizations, a Rotational Central Composite Design (DCCR) was performed to carry out the tests in the Jar Test. The independent variables used in the tests were the amount of mucilage (QM), initial treatment pH (pH) and aluminum sulphate concentration [Al2(SO4)3]. The constant parameters used were: fast mixing time, slow mixing time, fast mixing speed, slow mixing speed. For the performance of the assays, the samples were submitted to analysis on the atomic absorption equipment, and, through the statistical treatment of the data, the assay 4 was shown to be more efficient. However, the biopolymer was not efficient to remove the chromium from the effluent.