| Summary: | High removal of heavy metals using plant-based bioflocculant under low concentration is required due to its low cost, abundant source, and nontoxicity for improved wastewater management and utilization in the water industry. This paper presents a treatment of synthetic wastewater using plant-based Tacca leontopetaloides biopolymer flocculant (TBPF) without modification on its structural polymer chains. It produced a high removal of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd) at a low concentration of TBPF dosage. In our previous report, TBPF was characterized and successfully reduced the turbidity, total suspended solids, and color for leachate treatment; however, its effectiveness for heavy metal removal has not been reported. The removal of these heavy metals was performed using a standard jar test procedure at different pH values of synthetic wastewater and TBPF dosages. The effects of hydroxide ion, pH, initial TBPF concentration, initial metal ion concentration, and TBPF dosage were examined using one factorial at the time (OFAT). The results show that the highest removal for Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd metal ions were 98.4–98.5%, 79–80%, 97–98%, and 92–93%, respectively, using 120 mg/L dosage from the initial concentration of 10% TBPF at pH 10. The final concentrations for Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd metal ions were 0.043–0.044, 0.41–0.43, 0.037–0.054, and 0.11–0.13 mg/L, respectively, which are below the Standard B discharge limit set by the Department of Environment (DOE), Malaysia. The results show that TBPF has a high potential for the removal of heavy metals, particularly Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd, in real wastewater treatment. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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