Public Health Engineering (CE-355)

Practical
Turbidity Removal & Optimum Coagulant Dose by Jar Test

Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE)

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE) NUST,
Islamabad

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 Content
• Introduction/Theory
• Reagents/Apparatus
• Procedure
• Reading & Calculation
• Results

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 Introduction
• Sources of water
• Purpose of Treatment
• Selection of Treatment Methods
• Different Treatment Methods

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 Sedimentation
• Sedimentation is a process of segregation of suspended particles from
water by gravity.
• Discrete particle settling
• Sedimentation can be used to remove suspended particles down to size
of about 5 x10-5
• Colloidal particles having size in range of 10-9 to 10-7 have very slow
settling velocities. Therefore removal by sedimentation is not feasible.

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 Need of Coagulation
• Small size particles (colloidal particles) have low settling
velocities.
• Their removal is not possible by gravity settling under
reasonable overflow rates.
• Their effective removal in subsequent units(sedimentation,
filtration) can be achieved by increasing their size.

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Coagulation & Flocculation

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 Process of Coagulation
The overall process consists of two steps:
i. Particle destabilization
ii. Particle transport (flocculation)

Coagulants:
Chemicals that are used in coagulation are called coagulants. Different
coagulants are as :
1. Inorganic Salts
Most commonly used coagulant is ALUM has formula of
Al2(SO4)3.14H2O and working range is pH 4 – 7. Similarly FeSO4 can
be used as coagulant whose range is pH - 8.5
2. Polymers (Synthetic organic polymers)

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 Jar Test
• To study the process of coagulation and flocculation, Jar Test
apparatus is used.
• Jar test is used to determine the
i. optimum coagulant dose
ii. best mixing speeds and
iii. best mixing timings for a particular water

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 Apparatus & Reagents
• Jar Test apparatus
• pH meter
• Turbidimeter
• 6 Jars
• Aluminum Sulphate Solution
• Sodium Carbonate solution
• Acid/base

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 Procedure
• Measure the initial turbidity and pH of water sample
• Prepare Alum solution by dissolving 0.5 g/100 ml distil water. Take
equal volume of sample (1000mL) into each of 5 jars. Check the
operation of Stirrer and paddles.
• Add a coagulant, Al2(SO4)3 to 5 jars as given below
Jar 1 2 3 4 5

Volume of Al2(SO4)3 (mL) 2 4 6 8 10

Rough Calculation work for Step-2 Rough Calculation work for Step-3
Calculation for Preparation of Stock solution Dose Amount of Dose (mg/L) in 1 st Jar different Jars

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 …
• Stir at 120 rpm (Flash Mix) in each jar for approximately 1 minute.
• After that provide a Slow Mix at 20rpm for 20 minutes. Note the size and
appearance of flocks formed.
• After slow mix, withdraw the paddles and observe the settling of particles
after a settling time of 30 minutes.
• Now withdraw an adequate volume of supernatant liquor to conduct final
turbidity of each jar using turbidimeter
• Find the removal efficiency against each case and draw a graph b/w Final
Turbidity (Y-axis) Vs Dose (X-axis) or RE(Y-axis) Vs Dose (X-axis)
• Find the optimum value of coagulant dose from graph
• Repeat the experiment if satisfactory results are not obtained by trying
another range of coagulant. i.e. by narrowing the range of dosage near the
optimum.

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 Observation/Calculations
Sample pH =
Initial Turbidity=
Optimum Coagulant Dose

Conc of Coagulant (mL) Final Turbidity (NTU)

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4
6
8
10

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 …
 Now we will determine Removal efficiency for each of Jar
using following formula

𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑦 −𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑦

Removal Efficiency= 𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑦
× 100

 The dose corresponding the to jar having maximum Removal

Efficiency (RE) would indicate the optimum value of
coagulant dose

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Conclusion & References

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 Thanks!!!!!
Any Question?
You can contact me at:
mirfan@iese.nust.edu.pk

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