No abstract

Pollutants from sewage wastewater are major concerns due to their environmental effects. Thus, an effective sewage wastewater treatment plant is important to ensure discharged effluent is well treated before it can be released to rivers or water streams. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the Activated Sludge Hi-Kleen Treatment Plant (ASHTP) located at H Block (ASHTP at H Block) and L Block (ASHTP at L Block) in UiTM Sarawak Branch, Samarahan Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia. The evaluation was based on physicochemical and removal efficiency namely pH, temperature, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solids (TSS) from raw influent and treated effluent. The findings indicated that the overall performance of both ASHTP at H Block and L Block were satisfactory where treated effluent meets the standard discharge limits of Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulations 2009 (Standard B). For ASHTP at H Block, the removal efficiencies of turbidity, COD, and TSS were found to be 86.00, 13.76, and 88.02% respectively, in which the pH, temperature, turbidity, COD, and TSS of the treated effluent were 7.30, 28.10°C, 10.40 NTU, 14.10 mg/L and 8.90 mg/L respectively. Meanwhile, for ASHTP at L Block, the removal efficiencies of turbidity, COD, and TSS were found to be 43.20, 41.90, and 51.61% respectively, in which the pH, temperature, turbidity, COD, and TSS in the treated effluent were 7.30, 27.90°C, 21.10 NTU, 58.10 mg/L and 18.00 mg/L respectively. Proper maintenance of sewage treatment plant is important to ensure its effectiveness as well as to prolong its lifespan.

Coagulation process using low dosage of plant-based coagulant to remove high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity is important for water treatment. This study presents the treatment of pond water using plant-based pineapple leaf coagulant to achieve high COD and turbidity removal. The coagulation was performed using a jar test experiment of pond water at different pH followed by different dosages of pineapple leaf coagulant. It was found that the highest COD and turbidity removal ranged between 94.1 – 94.6 % and 88.3 – 88.4 % at pH 8 respectively, using low dosage (50 mg L-1) of pineapple leaf coagulant. The final COD and turbidity values ranged between 7.3 – 8.0 mg L-1 and 17.7 – 17.8 formazin turbidity unit (FTU) respectively, which are lower compared with results from other studies that used high dosage coagulants. Moreover, the final pH, COD, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and total suspended solid (TSS) values of the treated pond water were below the standard limits set by the National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (NWQSM) class IIB, which represents water bodies suitable for recreational use with body contact (DOE, 2016). Therefore, it is expected that the newly-formulated waste utilisation of pineapple leaf coagulant can reduce the usage of chemical coagulants and can further be used for different types of water.