<![CDATA[Industrial rice flour generates significant volumes of cloudy, starchy wastewater, with high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS). The rich organic content of this effluent poses a substantial environmental threat. This study aimed to optimise the treatment of rice flour wastewater using natural Moringa oleifera seed powder (MSP) as a coagulant flocculant to reduce TDS and TSS levels by varying particle size and dosage, with the results analysed statistically using the Taguchi method. The treatment process consisted of gross filtration, pre-sedimentation, coagulation flocculation, and sedimentation. The MSP sizes varied among 60, 30, 18, 10, and 7 mesh, while the dosages were 1:1000, 1:660, 1:500, 1:330, and 1:250 of the mass dosage of MSP (g) to sample volume (mL). The results showed that the particle size and dosage had significant effects on the reduction of TSS and TDS. Treatment with 60-mesh MSP at a dosage of 1:330 resulted in a TSS reduction of 73.08 %. Meanwhile, treatment with 30-mesh MSP at a dosage of 1:1000 achieved a TDS reduction of 37.08%. Generally, the treatments of all variations tend to lower the pH. Taguchi analysis employing two factors and five levels indicated that the lowest average response was obtained at the 30-mesh size with a dosage of 1:660, where as the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio analysis showed that the most stable and least noise-affected condition occurred at the 30-mesh size with a dosage of 1:1000.]]>
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