Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

The performance of oyster shell as natural coagulant under varying pH, dosage and settling time in the removal of turbidity of paint waste water at room temperature has been investigated.The application of single angle Turbidimeter measurement was employed for the experiment. Such kinetic and functional parameter as coagulation rate constant, K₁₁, and coagulation period,,were determined. Statistical parameters such as the coefficient of determination, R^2, sum of squares due to error, SSE, and the root mean square error, RMSE, were used to evaluate the adequacy of the process. The highest value of  L/mg.minfor K is recorded at pH 4 and 100mg/L dosage with of 11.65min and the least value of K,.min is recorded at pH 8 and 300mg/L doses with  of 56.24min, respectively. The efficiency of turbidity removal of more than 80% and 95% were achieved at the end of 3 and 30mins settling time, respectively, indicating a system controlled by the perikinetic method of caog-flocculation. The results exhibited the potential of oyster shell for the removal of suspended particlescausing turbidity  from paint wastewater.