Notre Dame University Louaizeh-Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering

CEN 365: Environmental

Engineering Lab
Module 2:
Jar test

Prepared by: Layla Chaaya

Coagulation
Involves adding of chemicals known as Coagulants
For example: Aluminum Sulfate (75-250 g/m3) and Ferric chloride (45-90 g/m3)

For a main purpose of :

Destabilizing [allow them to agglomerate] the suspended particles, colloidal materials,
and macromolecules
Flocculation

 The aggregation of destabilized particles into larger flocs under slow mixing conditions.
 Whereby; the flocs formed are later removed by sedimentation and/or filtration.
Jar testing
 A jar test simulates the coagulation and flocculation processes.
 The jar test is a common laboratory procedure used to determine the optimum
operating conditions for water or wastewater treatment.
 Main objective:
 to obtain the optimum dosage of coagulant that allows for the most efficient
settlement process.
Procedure

 Jar tests are conducted on a six-place gang stirrer, which can be utilized to
simulate mixing and settling conditions in a clarifier.

 Beakers filled with 500 ml of wastewater and with the same coagulant at different
dosages are run side-by-side and then tested for turbidity (NTU).

 The coagulant concentration tested are as follows:

 1.Ferricchloride:60mg/L,75mg/L,90mg/L,105mg/L,120mg/Land130mg/L

 2.AluminumSulfate:75mg/L,105mg/L,135mg/L,165mg/L,195mg/Land225mg/L
 1.Begin stirring the water at 100 rpm or maximum speed on the gang stirrer.

 2.Add the coagulant dosages

 3.Allow the coagulant to mix at the rapid speed of 100 rpm for approximately 2
minutes.

 4.Observe which jar yields largest floc size.

 5.Reduce the speed to a slower mix of approximately 30-40 rpm.

 6.Mix at this lower speed for equal to HRT, in our case HRT = 34 minutes.

 7.Run a Turbidity Analysis to determine which jar obtains the best clarity.

 Repeat for ferric chloride and aluminum sulfate

 Turbidity and turbidity meter

 A physical characteristic of water: Turbidity measure the optical clarity of water –that
is affected by suspended particles in the water that don’t allow light to pass through.

 The Turbidity meter measure this light interference and is measured in Nephelometric
Turbidity Units (NTU).
Measuring for optimum coagulant

 To obtain the optimum dosage for each coagulant plot the Turbidity vs coagulant dose
curve.
 Plot for both coagulants
 Derive which coagulant is optimum for the wastewater being tested