Use of Moringa oleifera Seed as a Natural Adsorbent for Wastewater Treatment Angelica Marquetotti Salcedo Vieira & Marcelo F. Vieira & Gabriel F. Silva & Álvaro A. Araújo & Márcia R. Fagundes-Klen & Márcia T. Veit & Rosângela Bergamasco Received: 28 January 2009 / Accepted: 20 May 2009 / Published online: 5 June 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Moringa oleifera (MO) is a multipurpose, medium- or small-sized tree, from regions of north- west India and indigenous to many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. Its pods have been employed as an inexpensive and effective sorbent for the removal of organics, and coagulant for water treatment. It is a non-toxic natural organic polymer. The main objective of this work was to use the MO seeds as a natural adsorbent for the treatment of dairy industry wastewater (DIW). The effects of agitation time, pH, MO biomass dose, and DIW concentration were evaluated. Removal efficiencies of up to 98%, for both color and turbidity, were reached using 0.2 g MO and 0.2 L of 1.0 g/L sorbate solution (DIW). The obtained results showed that MO seed keeps its adsorption power under a pH range between 5 and 8. The adsorption data was fitted to Langmuir isotherm. There was a significant uptake capacity of MO biomass, q max , which suggested a good affinity between DIW components and sorbent. We conclude that the MO biomass has the potential to be used in the dairy industry wastewater treatment in an efficient way and with low cost. Keywords Dairy industry wastewater . Moringa oleifera . Biosorption . Natural adsorbent 1 Introduction Turbidity and color removal is one of the important steps in a water treatment process, which is generally achieved using coagulants. Many coagulants are widely used in conventional water treatment processes, based on their chemical characteristics. These coagu- lants are classified into inorganic, synthetic organic polymers and natural coagulants. The two most commonly used primary coagulants are aluminum and iron (III) salts (Okuda et al. 1999). However, recent studies have pointed out several drawbacks of using aluminum salts, such as Alzheimer’ s disease associated with residual aluminum in treated water and production of large sludge volumes (Ndabigengesere Water Air Soil Pollut (2010) 206:273–281 DOI 10.1007/s11270-009-0104-y A. M. S. Vieira (*) : M. F. Vieira : R. Bergamasco Department of Chemical Engineering, State University of Maringá, Av. Colombo 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, Paraná, Brazil e-mail: angelicamsalcedo@hotmail.com G. F. Silva : Á. A. Araújo Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Sergipe, Av. Mal. Rondon, s/n Jardim Rosa Elze, 49100-000 São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brazil M. R. Fagundes-Klen : M. T. Veit Department of Chemical Engineering, West Paraná State University-Toledo, Rua da Faculdade, 645—Jd. Santa Maria, 85903-000 Toledo, Paraná, Brazil