Environmental friendly flocculants for drinking water treatment

Abstract

Coagulation-flocculation is an important step for the treatment of drinking water obtained from surface water sources. Various types of flocculants are available in the drinking water treatment market but only some of them are friendly for the environment due to their specific structure, which includes natural compounds. Starch-based flocculants are included in this category and some types of them were tested in our research work, in similar conditions with ordinary polyelectrolytes, in order to prove their efficiencies for turbidity and organic load (COD-Mn) removal. Five types of flocculants based on starch and acrylamide were tested during the classic treatment flow coagulation-flocculation-settling with aluminum sulfate as coagulant (1-10 mg Al/L) and 0.5-10 mL/L flocculant dose (0.2% active substance). Better removal efficiencies of turbidity and organic load (COD-Mn) in case of flocculants based on starch and acrylamide copolymers: over 99% for turbidity and ~90% for COD-Mn in case of 300-400 NTU initial surface water turbidity were registered.