Mendoza, Jeff Noah F.

ME- 4101

Design and Development of Copra Drying, Deoiling and Pulverizing Machine for

the Production of Natural Coagulant for Waste Water Treatment

Water pollution is a fast growing problem in most of the country. In the case of

the Philippines we are experiencing problems on having a clean water supply especially

on time of calamities like typhoons. Water pollution is also considered as one of the

major reason of deaths and diseases worldwide. Even in wealthier nations where piped

water supplies mean that water pollution poses fewer direct threats to human health,

many lakes and rivers are polluted. In order for these water to be useful again, it needs

to be treated. The cost of water treatment is increasing and the quality of river water is

not stable due to suspended and colloidal particles by land development and high storm

runoff during the rainy seasons. During the rainy seasons there is an increase in

turbidity level and so does the need for water treatment chemicals, which leads to

expensive treatment which cannot be sustained by water companies. So the quest for

an affordable water treatment material is really a challenge.

This machine focuses on the production of a powdered natural coagulant from a

deoiled a copra. It is known that the natural coagulant extracted from the endosperm of

copra behaved as effective coagulants of silica particles. Copra, though already dried

using different method like kiln method, will be dried again to ensure a lower moisture

content before deoiling. After deoiling, it will then be pulverized. To test the effectivity of
the natural coagulant produced, it will be mixed in a contaminated water. The protein is

expected to act similarly to synthetic and positively charged polymer coagulant. When

this protein is added to a raw water, it binds with the predominantly negatively charged

particulate which makes the raw water turbid. Under proper agitation these bound

particulates then grow in size to form the flocks, which may be left to settle by gravity or

be removed by sedimentation. The water will be subject for laboratory testing to

determine its qualities.