Cationic Chitosan in Wastewater Treatment

Treatment of chemical industry wastewater is a challenge for the world to save the environment. There are many processes developed for the treatment of industrial wastewater. Very simple to highly complex methods are invented by different researchers. These methods can be compared on various aspects such as their performance on wastewater, ease of operation, cost, etc. Coagulation and flocculation is one of the most widely used technique for the treatment of wastewater. A wide variety of chemicals are used as coagulants and flocculants and used in different combinations. Very few natural chemicals are used for this role. Natural chemicals are biodegradable, environment-friendly and not harmful to the environment compared to synthetic chemicals/ polymers. Chitosan is one such natural polymer, reported its usefulness in treatment as flocculent. In this paper, The COD is studied, and reported the performance of modified chitosan as a flocculent along with different conventional coagulants. Chitosan has been modified, to improve its performance. A variety of combinations of coagulants and flocculants is used for the treatment of wastewater.