LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS FOR

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY VII (EP 329)

NO. OF EXPERIMENT : 5

TITLE OF EXPERIMENT: Jar test

STUDENT NAME : STUDENT ID :

PRATAP KRISHNAN 1001748246

YONG JIA NING 1001748943

BENNETT GOH JIA SHENG 1001643312

IFTEKHAR HOSSAIN 1001852505

GROUP : 4

DATE OF EXPERIMENT : 24 February 2021

TUTOR : Ms.Rafizah Binti Zaiton

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING , ARCHITECTURE & BUILT ENVIRONMENT

UCSI UNIVERSITY

JAN-APR 2021
 Table of Content

No. Subject Page

1 Problem statement 2

2 Objective 2

3 Hypothesis 2

4 Introductions

5 Material and apparatus

6 Procedure/Methods

7 Results & calculation

8 Discussion

9 Limitation of the experiment

10 Conclusion

11 Reference

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Problem Statement:

● What is the relationship between coagulant dosage and the turbidity level?
● What is the relationship between the tap water and the turbidity level?
● What is the relationship between chemical dosage and the water quality parameter
such as pH and colour?

Objectives:

● To investigate the relationship between coagulant dosage and turbidity level.

● To investigate the relationship between tap water and the turbidity level.
● To measure the water quality parameter such as turbidity, pH and colour before and
after the Jar Test.

Hypothesis:

● The higher the coagulant dosage, the lower the turbidity level.
● As the turbidity level decreases, the clarity of the tap water will increase, thus the
water will be clear.
● The optimum pH is within 7.5 to 11. When the pH value is lower than 7.5, soda ash is
needed for the adjusting of pH value. Furthermore, the higher the chemical dosage
being added, the clearer the colour of the water.

Introduction:

Water treatment is a process that improves the quality of water to make it suitable for uses
such as, drinking, industry, water creation, river flow maintenance, and many other uses to
ensure the safety of the environment. It is because water treatment removes the impurities
and pollutants, or reduces their concentrations so that the water is safe for its desired uses.

One of the experiments that related to the process in the water treatment is Jar Test. The
processes are called coagulation and flocculation. This process is a process of removal of the
impurities in the water by using chemical agents which are coagulant for coagulation and
flocculant for flocculation process. Coagulants are a substance which causes the particle to
curdle and clot together. Particles stay suspended in the water then setting down because they
carry the charges that mutually repel each other. Coagulants carry the opposite charge from
the particles and therefore it causes the particles clinging together at the end.

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Furthermore, flocculation is a mixing process that promotes agglomeration and assists in the
settling of particles. During flocculation, the rate of particle collision will be enhanced by
gentle mixing and the destabilized particles are accumulated and trapped into larger
precipitates. There are several parameters that will affect the process of flocculation including
mixing speeds, mixing intensity, and mixing time. The product of the mixing intensity and
mixing time is used to describe flocculation processes.

Jar test is done to determine the dosage level of coagulant used and it will also provide
information on the right amount of coagulant to be used. A coagulant is a substance that is
added in water to complete coagulation. Alum is the coagulant that is used in this experiment.
Alum is added to agglomerate the small suspended particles into larger particles which will
eventually settle down sooner. These particles can then be removed by sedimentation.
Flocculation will also cause the particles to be less gelatinous. Hence, they will be easier to
be removed.

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Material and Apparatus:
● test instrument
● stopwatch
● Turbidimeter
● turbidimeter sample cells
● electronic weighing balance
● measuring cylinders
● dropper aluminum sulphate
● cement
● waste water sample
● tap water

Procedure:

1. A 500 mL beaker was filled with tap water.

2. 3g of cement was added into the beaker.
3. A Jar Test instrument at the speed of 200 rpm was used to stir the mixture for 5
minutes.
4. Then, 0mg of aluminum sulphate was added into the beaker before stirring it again.
5. The mixture in the beaker was stirred again using the Jar Test Instrument for 5
minutes.
6. The mixture was then left to settle down for 10 minutes.
7. Then, a dropper was used to fill up the 2 turbidimeter sample cells of the mixture ,
then it was tested by the turbidimeter , readings were recorded.
8. Steps 1 to 7 were repeated for 10mg , 15 mg , 20 mg , 25 mg, 30 mg of aluminum
sulphate.

Results:

Beaker Aluminium sulphate added (mg) Turbidity (NTU)

a 0 77.0

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 b 10 25.7

c 15 22.9

d 20 22.6

e 25 22.1

f 30 14.5

Discussion:

1. Plot the graph of dosage versus turbidity removal.

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 2. Propose other coagulant that may be used in wastewater treatment

From the result obtained, we observed that the turbidity of water decreased but not
uniformly. From the graph, we observed that the graph does not have a linear shape. In
general, graphs that must be obtained should be linear graphs, where turbidity (NTU) is
directly proportional to the mass of Alum. The more the alum added in the beaker, the
clearest the sample obtained, also turbidity decreased. This is because alum acts as a
coagulant and causes coagulation to take place. What is Coagulation? Coagulation is the term
used to describe a liquid process which changes to a solid state; synonyms include curdling
and coagulation. It is a chemical process whereby a liquid changes its chemical properties
such that particles begin to clump together and form solid matter. Like flocculants, using
coagulation to purify water is a technique that has been employed for over 4,000 years and is
still one of today's primary methods.

Coagulants that may be used in wastewater treatment are Aluminium Sulphate

(Alum), Sodium Aluminate, Ferric Chloride Sulfate, Magnesium Carbonate and etc. Among
all the coagulants that have listed above, Alum are preferable as the prices are reasonable and
efficient in treating wastewater. Alum also known as Aluminium Sulphate was utilized in this
experiment.

Limitations:

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 First and foremost, what will limit our experiment most prominently is measuring
turbidity. This can be due to the glass cell not being cleaned thoroughly, which may leave
behind stains or fingerprints that will interfere with the light passing through it, thus affecting
our turbidity readings adversely.

Secondly, manual additions of aluminium sulphate are prone to give error and are
hence imperfect. This can be solved by substituting the manual process for an automated one,
where a dosing device linked to a computer can be used. Since the increments between the
additions are 10mg, we can program the dosing device to inject exactly 10mg more than the
previous input and this method is less likely to give us errors.

However, besides the possible errors mentioned above, this experiment was
conducted within the limits of accuracy adhering to the instructions and procedures.

Conclusion:

All in all, this experiment was carried out to completion following the procedures
given and approved by the instructor, avoiding errors wherever possible. All of the objectives
were successfully accomplished. We were able to determine the relationship between dosage
and turbidity, level of turbidity removal in tap water and we were also able to successfully
measure parameters of the water before and after the jar test.

Reference:

1. Sarat. (2013, May 10). Jar test for determining "Coagulant" dosage in Water
treatment. Retrieved February ,26, 2021 , from
https://sarat212.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/jar-test-for-determining-coagulant-dosage
-in-
2. Zane Satterfield. (2005). Jar Testing. Retrieved February 25, 2021, from
http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/dw/publications/ontap/2009_tb/jar_testing_dwfsom73.p
df
3. Scribd. 2019. Jar Test Lab Report | Colloid | Chemical Substances. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/131655380/Jar-Test-Lab-Report. [Accessed
26 February 2021]

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