Studies on Alum as Milk Coagulating Agent in the Manufacture of Paneer – An Indian Cottage Cheese

Alum is a white crystalline double sulphate of aluminum and potassium that is commonly used as an astringent. Utilising its protein binding property, alum was studied as coagulating agent of milk in the preparation of paneer. Paneer is a soft variety of cottage cheese very popular in Indian sub-continent, used in various culinary dishes. Its preparation essentially involves acid coagulation of hot milk and pressing of the hot coagulum to form a compact block which is then cooled by immersing in chilled water. Citric acid and vinegar are commonly used as coagulating agents of milk during paneer manufacture. However, when alum was used as a coagulating agent, it was observed that most of the proteins were amalgamated during coagulation process resulting in enhanced yield of paneer. It also resulted in reduced solids losses in whey. However, use of alum resulted in a slight astringency in paneer, hence it was recommended to be used in combination with common coagulant i.e. citric acid. The solids content (losses) in whey were 6.62, 6.08, and 6.32 %, respectively for citric acid, alum and citric acid + alum mixture used as coagulating agents. Similarly, the yields of paneer were 16.42, 19.04 and 16.99 %. The alum coagulated paneer looked glossy and attractive which was indicated by reflectance values of 83.75% as against 79% for control paneer sample. The paneer made by alum coagulation had slightly brittle texture.

Evaluation of a Low-Cost Ceramic Filter for Sustainable Reuse of Urban Stormwater in Arid Environments

Sustainable reuse of urban stormwater is inevitable in the fight against water crises in arid regions. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a low-cost ceramic filtration process for reuse applications of urban stormwater. Stormwater was collected from a storage pond located in Buraydah (Qassim, Saudi Arabia) for laboratory experiments. The filtration tests were performed in a continuous mode with constant pressure using a low-cost ceramic filter made of clay soil and rice bran. The removal rates of the contaminants (heavy metals) as well as the turbidity, suspended solids, and nutrients of the stormwater were assessed. High removal efficiencies for turbidity (97.4%), suspended solids (97.0%), BOD5 (78.4%), and COD (76.1%) were achieved while low removals were achieved for the nutrients: 19.7% for total nitrogen, 25.3% for nitrate, and 8.6% for phosphate. Removal efficiencies ranged between 36.2% and 99.9% for the heavy metals, i.e., iron, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, copper, cadmium, selenium, and barium. Contaminant removal rates observed for the ceramic filter were also compared with the alum coagulation process operated in a continuous mode at an optimum alum dose of 50 mg/L. Similar removal behaviors for removal of turbidity, suspended solids, organics, nutrients, and heavy metals suggested that both ceramic filtration and alum coagulation can be effectively used for stormwater treatment. Effluent qualities of both the ceramic filter and alum coagulation met the standards, for recycling/reuse of wastewater, set by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and World Health Organization for unrestricted irrigation and toilet flushing. The study results revealed that ceramic filtration is a low-cost, energy efficient, and easy to maintain technology which can be complimentary to best management practices for stormwater.

Defluoridation of South Tunisian Brackish Water by Alum Coagulation/Flocculation: A Preliminary Work

Fluoride removal from aqueous solution was investigated using the chemical coagulation-flocculation by alum in reason of the efficiency and the simplicity of the process. Preliminary experiments were carried out to study the effect of some operating parameters such as: pH, initial fluoride concentration, coagulant dose, adjuvant coagulation dose, flocculent dose and settling time. Obtained experimental results showed that the treatment of fluoride by alum coagulation causes acidification of the solution. The effect of the initial pH solution on fluoride removal is negligible. Experimental results proved that coagulation process is effective in waters with low or medium levels of fluoride. Defluoridation rate was seen to increase with increasing coagulant and adjuvant coagulation doses. Optimal flocculent dose and optimal settling time were found 4.2 mg L-1 of FABI and 60 min respectively. Subsequently, experimental design methodology using two-level full factorial design was applied to optimize the defluoridation by coagulation-flocculation. Therefore, four operating parameters which are supposed to affect the removal efficiency were chosen: initial fluoride concentration, coagulant dose, coagulation adjuvant dose and settling time. From the statistical analysis, it is inferred that the four studied parameters have an influence on the fluoride removal. In fact, initial fluoride concentration has a positive effect unlike coagulant dose, coagulation adjuvant dose and settling time. Experiment tests were performed to evaluate the efficiency of coagulation-flocculation process for south Tunisian brackish water with high fluoride concentration. The obtained results showed that fluoride removal reached 59%.