QUENCHING THE THIRST OF MILLIONS IN

THE WORLD- APPLICATION OF

PROCESSED MORINGA OLEIFERA SEEDS
IN DRINKING WATER TREATMENT

SULEYMAN AREMU MUYIBI

Email:
engrmuyibi@yahoo.com
Bioenvironmental Engineering Research Unit
(BERU)
Department of Biotechnology Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
International Islamic University Malaysia

November 2005

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 CONTENT
OF PRESENTATION
 INTRODUCTION
 WATER TREATMENT- OVERVIEW
 WATER TREATMENT PROBLEMS
 CHEMICALS USED IN SURFACE
WATER TREATMENT
 PROBLEMS FACED IN USE OF
CHEMICAL COAGULANTS
 PROPOSED SOLUTION –
MORINGA OLEIFERA SEEDS
 MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED
PROCESSING TECHNIQUES
 APPLICATION OF PROCESSED
SEEDS IN TREATMENT OF
SURFACE WATER

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 INTRODUCTION

 Drinking water which should be palatable

and potable is essential to the health and
welfare of a community and water from all
sources must have some form of purification
before consumption.
 About 1.2 billion people still lack safe
drinking water and more than 6 million
children die from diarrhea in developing
countries every year.
 Water borne diseases still kill on the average
25,000 people every day in developing
countries while millions suffer the debilitating
effects of these diseases.
 About 75% of the present world population
live in the developing countries of the world.
 About 80 % of all illnesses in developing
countries are water related e.g. cholera,
dysentery, diarrhea etc.

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 WATER TREATMENT
OVERVIEW
 Various methods are used to make water
safe and attractive to the consumer.
 The method employed depends on the
character and source of the raw water
e.g. surface water, groundwater.
 For surface water, coagulation-
flocculation followed by sedimentation,
filtration and disinfection, often by
chlorine, is used worldwide in the water
treatment industry before distribution of
the treated water to consumers.
 Groundwater if too hard will have to be
softened by using lime, soda ash, ion-
exchange etc. to treat it.

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 WATER TREATMENT
PROBLEMS
 Water treatment companies in in developing
countries face a myriad of problems
 Some of these are:
 Large seasonal variation in raw water quality e.g.
turbidity.
 Water treatment chemicals are imported with
scarce foreign currency.
 High cost of water treatment chemicals which
constitute between 35% to 70% of recurrent
expenditure.
 Inadequate supply of chemicals for water treatment
 Inadequate laboratory facilities to monitor process
performances required to operate the plants.
 Inadequate funding
 Low revenue base
 Water supply considered as a social commodity
rather than an economic resource
 Inadequate skilled manpower,
 Poor operational and maintenance schedules,
 Adoption of inappropriate technology.
 Inadequate supply to meet growing demand
 Underdosing of chemicals leading supply of poor
quality water.

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 CHEMICALS USED IN SURFACE
WATER TREATMENT
 Coagulants:
 Many coagulants are widely used in conventional
water treatment processes for turbidity removal.
 These coagulants can be classified into:
 Inorganic coagulant: such as
 Aluminium sulphate (alum)
 “PAC” (poly-aluminum chloride),

 Poly-aluminum silico sulphate (PASS),

 Ferric Chloride.

 Synthetic organic polymers: poly-electrolytes

are used as primary coagulant as well as
coagulant aids to improve the strength of
particle aggregates, enhance coagulation and
deposition.
 Natural coagulants / flocculants.

 Alkalinity and pH correctants:

 Calcium hydroxide( slaked lime)
 Sodium Carbonate (soda ash)
 Disinfectants: Chlorine compounds e.g
Calcium hypo chloride, chloride gas, sodium
hypo chloride , ozone, chlorine dioxide etc.

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 PROBLEMS FACED IN THE USE
OF CHEMICAL COAGULANTS
 Potential health and environmental
problems in the use of chemical
coagulants.
 Aluminum has also been indicated to be a
causative agent in neurological diseases such
as pre-senile dementia
 There is a fear that ingestion of aluminum
ions may induce Alzheimer’s disease
 Sludge produced are voluminous and non-
biodegradable after treatment and therefore
poses disposal problems leading to increase
cost of treatment.
 The costs of these chemicals has been
increasing at an alarming rate in developing
countries.
 Most of the water treatment companies
cannot cope with the high costs due to
declining revenues and funding
 The inability of local supplies to satisfy the
demand due to competing uses.
 Foreign exchange problem for imported
chemicals.
.

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PROBLEMS FACED IN THE
USE OF CHEMICAL
COAGULANTS

 There is also the problem of reaction of

alum with natural alkalinity present in water
leading to reduction of pH and a low
efficiency in coagulation of cold waters.
 Under-dosing of chemicals so as to meet
the increasing water demand leading to
production of poor quality drinking water.
 Using alum as well as other metallic salt
coagulants produces large sludge volumes
which are also non-biodegradable.
 Ferric salts and synthetic polymers have
also been used as coagulants but with
limited success because of the same
disadvantages manifested in the use of
aluminum salts

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 PROPOSED SOLUTION
MORINGA OLEIFERA
SEEDS
 Naturally occurring coagulants are usually presumed
safe for human health.
 Some studies on natural coagulants have been carried
out and various natural coagulants were produced or
extracted from microorganisms, animals or plants.
 One of these alternatives is Moringa oleifera seeds.
 It is a native tree of the sub-Himalayan parts of
Northwest India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 It is now widely cultivated across Africa e.g. Nigeria,
Niger, Malawi, Tanzania etc. South America, most part
of South – East Asia for example, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Philippine, Cambodia, Middle East, Central
America, and The Caribbean islands.
 The traditional use of the Moringa oleifera seeds for
domestic household water treatment is limited to
certain rural areas in the Sudan.
 Moringa oleifera is a perfect example of a so-called
“multipurpose tree”

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MORINGA OLEIFERA TREE
WITH FULLY GROWN RIPE
SEED PODS

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 Moringa Oleifera
seed pods & dry seeds

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 Moringa oleifera
multipurpose uses
Ground Seed Cake as coagulant
- flocculant in water treatment

Oil from
seeds Fencing of property

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MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED
PROCESSING
TECHNIQUES
 LOW TECHNOLOGY

 MEDIUM TECHNOLOGY

 HIGH TECHNOLOGY

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 MORINGA OLEIFERA
SEED PROCESSING TECHNIQUES
LOW TECHNOLOGY

 Suitable for households to small

community water supplies.
 Production of biocompost/ bio-fertilizer
from sludge produced after treatment

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LOW TECHNOLOGY
SEED PROCESSING
REMOVE DRY SEED FROM
PODS AND SHELL
(DEHAULING PROCESS)

GRIND SEED TO A VERY FINE POWDER

PACK POWDER IN A PLASTIC BAG AND

SEAL TO KEEP IT AIRTIGHT
STORE IN A
DRY PLACE UNTIL WHEN NEEDED

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 MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED
PROCESSING TECHNIQUES
MEDIUM TECHNOLOGY

 SUITABLE FOR MEDIUM TO

LARGE COMMUNITIES
 USEFUL BY PRODUCTS
FROM PROCESSING e.g.
edible oil, activated carbon from
husk and seed shell, bio-
fertilizer / biocompost from
sludge after treatment, etc.

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 MEDIUM TECHNOLOGY
SEED PROCESSING
Convert seed DEHAUL DRY SEEDS
Husk, pods etc
To Activated
Carbon, fuel for
Steam production etc

EXTRACT OIL FROM POWDER

Process Oil USING COLD PRESS,
For use ORGANIC SOLVENTS, STEAM ETC

DRY POWDER (residue) TO REMOVE

ALL TRACES OF SOLVENT OR MOISTURE

PACK POWDER IN A PLASTIC BAG AND

SEAL TO KEEP IT AIRTIGHT
STORE IN A
DRY PLACE UNTIL WHEN NEEDED

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 MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED
PROCESSING TECHNIQUES
HIGH TECHNOLOGY
SEED PROCESSING
 Suitable for medium to large scale
applications.
 Have high shelf life
 Large scale production for export to
other countries.
 Efficient in the treatment of raw
water with diverse characteristics.
 Low dosage applications.
 Many useful byproducts e.g. oil,
poultry and livestock feed, bio-
fertilizer etc.

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HIGH TECHNOLOGY
SEED PROCESSING
DEHUSK DRY SEEDS

EXTRACT OIL
ENZYME ASSISTED/
SOLVENT/
COLD PRESS ETC.

EXTRACT BIO-FLOCCULANTS
ION-EXCHANGE, ULTRAFILTRATION
CROSSFLOW MICROFILTRATION,

PACKAGING
LIQUID FORM OR
SOLID( FREEZE DRYING, CENTRIFUGE
& DRYING)

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 APPLICATION IN
WATER TREATMENT
 Household and Community Level water
treatment units.
 Treatment Unit operations and processes.
 Manual of operation required for dosing, filter
cleaning and maintenance etc.
 Use Moringa oleifera seed processed with low
technology COAGULANT DOSING

COAGULATION-FLOCCULATION

SLUDGE MIXED FILTRATION

WITH AGRO-WASTE SLOW SAND FILTERS
BIOCOMPOST

STORAGE
AND
DISTRIBUTION FOR USE
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 APPLICATION IN
WATER TREATMENT
LARGE SCALE
 Application areas:
 Existing conventional water treatment

plants with slight modifications.

 New water treatment plants.

 Use processed Moringa seed from

medium technology or high technology.

 Provide manual of operation for dosing,

filter maintenance etc.

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 APPLICATION IN LARGE SCALE
CONVENTIONAL WATER
TREATMENT
 Existing Water Treatment Plants
COAGULANT DOSING
COAGULATION
RAPID MIXING

FLOCCULATION
SLOW MIXING

SEDIMENTATION

SLUDGE
TREATMENT
Convert To
Bio-Compost FILTRATION
Soil Conditioner etc. (RAPID SAND)

DISINFECTION, STORAGE
DISTRIBUTION
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APPLICATION IN LARGE SCALE
CONVENTIONAL
WATER TREATMENT

 Application in new water

treatment plants.
 Requires design and operation
modification

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 APPLICATION IN NEW LARGE
SCALE WATER TREATMENT

 OPTION A: RAPID SAND

FILTERS Coagulant Dosing

COAGULATION

FLOCCULATION

SLUDGE DIRECT FILTRATION

TREATMENT Rapid sand Filters
Bio-compost
Soil conditioner

DISINFECTION
STORAGE
DISTRIBUTION

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APPLICATION IN NEW LARGE
SCALE WATER TREATMENT

 OPTION B: SLOW SAND

Coagulant Dosing
FILTERS
COAGULATION

Filter Cleaning
Sand replacement
DIRECT FILTRATION
Sludge disposal
SLOW SAND FILTER
Biocompost,
soil conditioner

DISINFECTION
STORAGE
DISTRIBUTION

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 RECOMMENDATIONS AND
STRATEGIES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
 Formation of Multi - disciplinary project groups.
 Environmental Engineers/Scientists, Water
resources engineers/scientists , water utility
company officials: Introduction of
technology and modalities for adoption
 Agricultural experts ( agriculturists,
extension experts, engineers): Cultivation
techniques of Moringa trees and harvesting
on a large scale
 Processing industries e.g. food processing,
seed oil processing etc: for processing of
seeds.
 NGOs involved in water related projects
 Funding by the relevant authorities for the
design , fabrication, and commissioning of pilot
scale water treatment plants.
 Demonstration and Training of water
treatment plant operators, NGOs involved
in community based water supply projects.
 Preparation of design and operation
manuals for seed processing and
application techniques in water treatment.

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RECOMMENDATIONS AND
STRATEGIES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION (contd.)
 Organise workshops and seminars for
transfer of technology in the following areas.
 Cultivation of Moringa oleifera trees,
harvesting of dried seeds
 Processing techniques of the seeds for
application in water treatment
 Application of the processed seed in water
treatment
 Public campaign and enlightenment on the
novel technology to encourage.
 Large scale cultivation of Moringa oleifera
trees as cash crop.
 Application in small scale DIY drinking
water treatment especially in rural areas.
 Network and cooperation with relevant
local and international institutions.

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 RESEARCH DIRECTION ON MORINGA
OLEIFERA SEED FOR APPLICATION IN
WATER TREATMENT AND WATER
POLLUTION CONTROL

 Development of economical and commercial

processing techniques of Moringa oleifera
seeds i.e medium and high technology
methods.
 Oil extraction( mechanical press, solvent
extration, steam extraction, enzyme assisted
extraction etc.) as value added product.
 Seed husk, pods etc. as raw material for
biocoversion into biocompost, bioalcohol etc.
 Processing of cake for application in water
treatment and water pollution control after oil
extraction
 Membrane separation techniques e.g.
ultrafiltration, cross-flow microfiltration etc.
 Centrifugation , freeze-drying
 Ion exchange etc.

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Research Direction on Moringa Oleifera seed
Application in Water Treatment and Water
Pollution Control by the Bioenvironmental
Research Unit (BERU) at the International
Islamic University Malaysia
 To isolate and purify the bioactive constituents in
Moringa Oleifera seeds.
 To characterize the molecular structure, formula,
weight, and charge of the isolated bioactive
constituents.
 To carry out detailed studies on the bioactive
constituents to determine possible positive
synergistic effects in the combination of isolates
on application in water (for potable use) and
wastewater (industrial and municipal) treatment
for water pollution control (surface and
groundwater).
 To produce samples of the best combination of
isolate of the bioactive constituents.
 To develop commercially viable, ( recovery of
value added products e.g. oil, biocompost,
biofuel) sustainable, and efficient seed processing
techniques.
 To develop user-friendly and appropriate
technology techniques for application of
processed Moringa Oleifera seeds for water
treatment and water pollution control in
developing countries

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