Use of Extracted Proteins from Oak Leaves as Bio-Coagulant for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Optimization by a Fractional Factorial Design

The present work sheds light on the potentiality of proteins extracted from oak (Quercus robur) leaves to treat both drinking water and industrial oily wastewater. The work was structured in three steps: firstly, oak leaves in powder form were analyzed by FTIR, XRD and SEM, thus showing the presence of proteins acting as bio-coagulants; secondly, an experimental design was conducted. According to the design of experiences based on fractional design (28−4), the highest protein concentration (4.895 mg/g) was obtained for the following operating parameters: no filtration, pH of 12, temperature of 20 °C, stirring speed of 300 rpm, stirring time of 60 min, maceration time of 4 h, centrifugation speed of 400 rpm, centrifugation time of 10 min. Finally, a jar test apparatus was used to study the effects of proteins from oak leaves on the characteristics of both drinking water and industrial oily wastewater. In drinking water, the turbidity was reduced from 15.7 to 4.82 NTU when 0.098 mg/L of oak leaves protein was added, thus satisfying the requirements of the national drinking water standards; whereas, in industrial oily wastewater turbidity, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand and organic matter were reduced by 96.87, 89.86, 96.39 and 46.28%, respectively, when 0.538 mg/L of oak leaves protein was added. This study opens new perspectives related to the research and development of organic coagulants applicable to industrial wastewater treatment.