Coagulation behavior of polyaluminum chloride: Effects of pH and coagulant dosage

Coagulation mechanisms of polyaluminum chloride(PACl) at various dosages were studied using a conventional jar test at different final and initial pH values during treating kaolin suspension. The optimal final pH and dosages for PACl were obtained based on residual turbidity and zeta potential of flocs. The coagulation zones at various PACl dosages and solution p H values were developed and compared with those of alum. It is found that the optimal mechanism under acidic condition is charge neutralization, while alkaline condition will facilitate the coagulation of PACl. Both charge neutralization coagulation and sweep coagulation can achieve high coagulation efficiency under the alkaline condition ranging from final p H 7.0 to 10.0. Stabilization, charge neutralization destabilization, restabilization and sweep zones occur successively with increasing PACl dosages with the final p H values fixed at 7.0 and 8.0, but restabilization zone disappears at final p H 10.0. When the final p H is not controlled and consequently decreases with increasing PACl dosage, no typical sweep zone can be observed and the coagulant efficiency decreases at high PACl dosage. It seems that the final pH is more meaningful than the initial p H for coagulation. Charge neutralization coagulation efficiency is dominated by zeta potential of flocs and PACl precipitates. The charge neutralization and sweep coagulation zones of PACl are broader in the ranges of coagulant dosage and p H than those of alum. The results are helpful for us to treat water and wastewater using PACl and to understand the coagulation process of PACl.

Coagulation efficiency and flocs characteristics of recycling sludge during treatment of low temperature and micro-polluted water

Drinking water treatment sludge,characterized as accumulated suspended solids and organic and inorganic matter,is produced in large quantities during the coagulation process.The proper disposal,regeneration or reuse of sludge is,therefore,a significant environmental issue.Reused sludge at low temperatures is an alternative method to enhance traditional coagulation efficiency.In the present study,the recycling mass of mixed sludge and properties of raw water （such as pH and turbidity） were systematically investigated to optimize coagulation efficiency.We determined that the appropriate dosage of mixed sludge was 60 mL/L,effective initial turbidity ranges were below 45.0 NTU,and optimal pH for DOMs and turbidity removal was 6.5-7.0 and 8.0,respectively.Furthermore,by comparing the flocs characteristics with and without recycling sludge,we found that floc structures with sludge were more irregular with average size growth to 64.7 μm from 48.1 μm.Recycling sludge was a feasible and successful method for enhancing pollutants removal,and the more irregular flocs structure after recycling might be caused by breakage of reused flocs and incorporation of powdered activated carbon into larger flocs structure.Applied during the coagulation process,recycling sludge could be significant for the treatment of low temperature and micro-polluted source water.