Application of biopolymer in turbidity removal and sludge settling behaviour of travertine-processing wastewater: Performance optimization using response surface methodology (RSM)

A flocculation process was performed to treat travertine-processing effluents with a high concentration of suspended solids using an eco-friendly biopolymer. The experiments were conducted through a standard jar test procedure to optimize the process parameters for sludge volume index (SVI) and turbidity removal. The effects of mixing time, suspension pH, and polymer dosage on treatment efficiency were investigated using central composite design, a standard technique in response surface methodology. The constructed response model was tested using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Using the Design-Expert tool, the coefficients of regression models were computed. The Fischer value (F-value) was used to evaluate the significance and validity of the predicted model, while the coefficient of determination (R2) was applied to estimate the model significance by comparing the predicted data with the measured data. The optimized parameters obtained were polymer dose of 276.20 mg/L, suspension pH of 8.60, and mixing time of 4.20 min. The optimal SVI and turbidity values obtained were 1.36 mL/g and 2.99 NTU, respectively. Additionally, R2 values for SVI and turbidity were determined as 0.9337 and 0.8654, respectively. Also, the difference between adjusted R2 values and predicted R2 was less than 0.2. Validation tests showed that the response surface methodology is an effective method for optimizing the flocculation mechanism.