Application of organic polymeric flocculants in centrifugal dewa-tering of oil refinery sludge

In order to evaluate the applicability of the organic polymeric flocculants(OPF) in the treatment of oil refinery sludge, experiments were conducted to show that OPF have better performance of flocculation than inorganic flocculants. Both the anionic and cationic OPF have satisfactory flocculation efficiency in oil sludge treatment, but the latter are more cost efficient. Among the over 20 types of flocculants tested, 2 OPF(CPAM 2 and HPAM 2) were selected as the treatment agents, based on their good treatment performances, oil resistance and economic feasibility. It was demonstrated in the industrial scale centrifugal dewatering experiments that the application of either CPAM 2 or HPAM 2 could achieve high treatment efficiency of the oil sludge dewatering and reduce the COD of centrifugal liquid to less than 1000 mg/L.

Phosphate Sorption in Water by Several Cationic Polymer Flocculants

Although inorganic phosphate is an essential plant nutrient, elevated levels in surface waters lead to adverse effects in the environment. These effects are attributed to runoff from rain or irrigation events that may cause the sorbed phosphate to be transported from the application sites and to move into neighboring watersheds. Increased phosphate concentration in watersheds may lead to a variety of environmental problems including increased algal blooms, bacterial contamination, and in some cases eutrophication. To overcome these effects, polymer flocculants have been shown to reduce the phosphate concentration in water by removing suspended solids and thereby removing the phosphate sorbed to the solids. The purpose of this study is to determine the amount, if any, of phosphate removed by several commercial polymers. The polymers chosen include the polyacrylamides Magnifloc 494C, Magnifloc 985N and Poly (diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride) (Poly (DADMAC)). Using these polymers, it is discovered that the positive charge density of the polymers affects the amount of phosphate removed from solution with Poly (DADMAC) (having 100% positive charge density) removing 40% of the phosphate from a solution containing 10 ppm phosphate.

Challenges in developing polymer flocculants to improve bitumen quality in non.aqueous extraction processes:an experimental study

Western Canada’s oil sands hold the third-largest hydrocarbon deposits in the world.Bitumen,a very heavy petroleum,is currently recovered by surface mining with warm water or in situ.Recovery processes that use organic solvents are being developed to reduce water usage and tailings production.While solvent-based methods can effectively extract bitumen,removal of residual fine solids from diluted bitumen product(DBP)to meet the pipeline transport requirement of<0.5 wt%solids and water in DBP remains a major challenge.We propose a novel area of application of polymer flocculants for fine solids removal from DBP.In principle,polymer flocculants can be applied to help remove these residual solids in conjunction with physical separation processes to increase process effectiveness and energy efficiency.Several polymers are selected and screened for flocculation behavior using kaolinite suspended in DBP and toluene,as a model system.Focused beam reflectance measurements and force tensiometer techniques are used to determine flocculation and sedimentation in DBP.The observed flocculation and sedimentation rate enhancements indicate that the polymers tested have only minor effects,providing opportunities for advanced polymer development.These findings exemplify the challenges in identifying polymers that may be effective as flocculants in heavy petroleum media.

Speciation characterization and coagulation of poly-silica-ferric-chloride:The role of hydrolyzed Fe(Ⅲ) and silica interaction

The highly efficient inorganic polymer flocculants （IPFs） of the ferric-silica system is a new and promising coagulant. Interactions between ferric species and silica play a large part in the coagulation of suspensions. These effects are quite distinct from those associated with polymeric or colloid silica. However, although these species are key to coagulation efficiency, they have not been comprehensively discussed. A new type of coagulant, poly-silica-ferric-chloride （PFSC）, was synthesized by co-polymerization and characterized by time complexation spectroscopy and photon correlation spectroscopy. Compared with traditional ferric salt, the results indicated that PFSC had a higher molecular weight, lesser positive charge, lower Feb and higher Fec. The higher the Si/Fe ratio, the higher the silica and lower the silicac found. The PFSC with appropriate polysilica acid not only obtained better coagulation/flocculation efficiency in turbidity removal, enhanced the flocculation index （FI） and provided less residual ferric, it also lowered water treatment costs compared to traditional ferric salt. Results showed that PFSC could remove colloid particles in water by charge neutralization and sweeping, adsorption bridging mechanism.

Hydrolyzed Al(Ⅲ) clusters:Speciation stability of nano-Al_(13)

Pure nano-All3 and aggregates at various concentrations were prepared to examine the particle size effect of coagulation with inorganic polymer flocculant. The property and stability of various species formed were characterized using Infrared, 27Al-NMR, photo correlation spectroscopy （PCS）, and Ferron assay. Results showed that concentration and temperature exhibited different roles on the stability of Al13. The quantity of Alb species analyzed by ferron assay in the initial aging period corresponded well with that of Al13, which has been confirmed in a dimension range of 1-2 nm by PCS. Al13 solutions at high concentrations （0.5-2.11 tool/L） were observed to undergo further aggregation with aging. The aggregates with a wide particle size distribution would contribute to the disappeared/decreased Al13 basis on the eTA1-NMR spectrum, whereas a part of Al13 would still remain as Alb. At low concentrations, All3 solution was quite stable at normal temperature, but lost its stability quickly when heating to 90~C.

Critical review of EPS production, synthesis and composition for sludge flocculation

Extracellular polymeric substances（EPS） produced by microorganisms represent biological macromolecules with unfathomable potentials and they are required to be explored further for their potential application as a bioflocculant in various wastewater sludge treatment. Although several studies already exist on biosynthetic pathways of different classical biopolymers like alginate and xanthan, no dedicated studies are available for EPS in sludge. This review highlights the EPS composition, functionality, and biodegradability for its potential use as a carbon source for production of other metabolites. Furthermore, the effect of various extraction methods（physical and chemical） on compositional, structural, physical and functional properties of microbial EPS has been addressed. The vital knowledge of the effect of extraction method on various important attributes of EPS can help to choose the suitable extraction method depending upon the intended use of EPS. The possible use of different molecular biological techniques for enhanced production of desired EPS was summarized.