Treatment of Fish-Processing Wastewater Using Polyelectrolyte and Palm Anguish

Fish-process wastewater industries are a significant source of environmental pollutions and biohazard to humans and other living organisms due to suspended organics, phosphorus, and nitrate that causes environmental damage. In this study, the treatment of two types of fish wastewater was examined by applying chemical and physical methods. The chemical treatments using positive polyelectrolyte with a concentration of 25 ppm reduced the turbidity of fish wastewater by 50%; conductivity was reduced by 50% and pH was reduced from 8 to 7.2. Meanwhile, using negative polyelectrolyte and mixed polymers reduced the turbidity of fish wastewater by 30%. For applying natural material as a physical adsorbent, several natural materials were examined: ocimum leaves, Boswellia sacra leaves, Al-Shakher leaves, tephrosia leaves, neem leaves, mentha leaves, jand peel, neem wood, ocimum fruit, olive fruit peel, and palm anguish for the treatment of the fish wastewater. The initial tests indicated that the best material was palm anguish. FTIR, SEM, and EDS were used for the characterization of palm anguish. The selected material was treated with 1 M of NaOH solution. Different bed heights (10, 20, and 30 cm) of Palm anguish were applied. The results showed 80% and 85% reduction in the turbidity in both types of fish wastewater, especially with a bed height of 30 cm of the fish wastewater treated with NaOH, respectively. Notably, this study distinguishes itself by utilizing polyacrylamide flocculants of varying densities and by employing palm anguish as a natural adsorbent, which can sufficiently improve the treatment of fish-processing wastewater.