1.2.

4 Coagulation and Flocculation

One of the common technique applied in water treatment process is coagulation-flocculation.

Coagulation is the process of the destabilization of colloidal particles, because of the addition of
synthetic materials which would neutralize charged particles thus forming a precipitate, then settle
due to the force of gravity. When the coagulant is introduced into the water, the individual colloids
will aggregate and grow bigger so that the impurities could settle down at the bottom and separated
from the water suspension. Aluminum and iron coagulants are the commonly used in most
industries (Saravanan, Priyadharshini, Soundammal, Sudha, & Suriyakala, 2017).

The most widely used metal coagulant is the aluminum sulfate (“alum”), which has been used for
wastewater treatment throughout the years. It is commonly manufactured from the reaction of
bauxite ores with sulfuric acid. It is supplied in the wastewater as powdered or in liquid form
(Tzoupanos & Zouboulis, 2008).

Coagulants can be classified into primary coagulants, coagulant aid and co-coagulant. The primary
coagulants destabilized the particles in the wastewater which causes the particles to clump
together. Examples of primary coagulants are aluminum sulfate (referred to as alum), ferric sulfate,
and ferric chloride. Coagulant aids add density to the slow-settling flocs (Coagulation, 1987).
While, co-coagulants are used to enhance coagulation in combination with a primary coagulant
(Hägg, 2015).

Coagulation is also defined as the addition of a positively charged ion of metal salt or catalytic
polyelectrolyte that results in particle destabilization and charge neutralization. The colloid
particles exhibit Brownian movement through the water, since their surface is negatively charged,
therefore repelling one another which forming a stable dispersed suspension (Bache, Rasool,
Moffat, & McGilligan, 1999). If colloid particles of positive electric charge are added, it
neutralizes the electric negative charge. On the other hand, flocculation refers to the successful
collision resulting when destabilized particles are driven toward each other by the hydraulic shear
force in the rapid mix and flocculation basin. Then, a few colloids agglomerates then quickly
bridge together to form micro flocs which is turned into visible floc masses (Sahu & Chaudhari,
2013).

Figure 6. Coagulation-Flocculation general steps proposed to coagulant Moringa oleifera lectin (Thesis,
B., 2015).
.
A proposed flocs formation for the coagulation process using a coagulant of Moringa Oleifera
lectin (cMOL), which is a positively charged protein interacting with a colloidal particles such as
kaolin with a negative zeta potential is shown in Figure 6. A decrease in the repulsive forces results
to the formation of aggregates that turns into an insoluble material that becomes progressively
larger and denser which later can be removed through sedimentation or filtration (Santos et al.,
2009).

To differentiate coagulation from flocculation, coagulation is the phase in the overall process
whereby the constituents of a given water are destabilized and flocculation is the phase whereby
destabilized particles, or particles formed during destabilization, are induced to collect into
aggregates. With colloids, the term stability describes the ability of individual particles to remain
as separate entities or, in other words, to maintain a dispersed state. The stability of colloidal
material arises from the predominance of forces associated with the solid-liquid interface.
Principally, the interfacial forces promoting the stability of a colloidal dispersion arise from: (i)
the presence of a surface charge at the interface between colloid and liquid and (ii) hydration of
surface layers of the colloid (Bratby, 1980).
The presence of phosphates can form complexes with the aluminium hydrolysis products which
may compete with its polymerization (Ratnaweera, Ødegaard, & Fettig, 1992) forming an
intermediate of aluminum hydroxyphosphates solids (Duffy & van Loon, 1995). Phosphate ions
can serve as counter ions competing with the OH- groups of the hydrolysis products and thus
replacing the individual coordinated OH- group rearranging itself into a stable binuclear bridge
between cations (Yang, et al.,2010). The hydroxyphosphates formed along with the precipitates
of some amorphous complex may adsorb on to the positively charged aluminum hydrolysis
species. Another possible case is that it may act as the centers of the precipitation of the aluminum
hydrolysis products and its negative charge sites could be destabilized by further addition of
coagulants until they form larger flocs that can be settled for removal (Ratnaweera, et al.,1992).

In cases where a cationic polymeric specie is used, phosphate ions can still complex with its
positive sites (Jiang & Graham, 1998). In fact, studies have been conducted to make use of
inorganic polymeric species for phosphates removal in wastewater. The conclusion is that
phosphate removal efficiency is dependent on the charge density depending on the polymeric
species that help in further coagulation of phosphorus and flocculation of the destabilized
particulates (Langer, et al., 2017).

1.6 Optimization and Response Surface Method

In an engineering design, the optimization stage is a systematic process which makes use of the
design constraints and criteria to enable the designer to locate the optimal solution hence both the
analysis and optimization must be employed first before starting any prototype work (Kelley,
2010). The aim is to find the most effective value or condition that amplifies factors such as
productivity, efficiency, productivity and utilization (Merrill, Custer, Daugherty, Westrick, &
Zeng, 2007).
Optimization has been traditionally carried out by examining the effect of one factor at a time on
a target response which implies that other variables are to be kept constant. Not only does this
method leads to an increase in the number of experiments necessary but also to an increase of time,
expenses and the consumption of reagents and other materials. More importantly, this technique
does not account the total effects of the parameter on the response (Bezerra, Santelli, Oliveira,
Villar, & Escaleira, 2008). To overcome the disadvantages presented by the one-factor
optimization, optimization procedures are done in a multivariate statistic techniques with the
response surface methodology (RSM) as the most widely used.
RSM intends to optimize the response (dependent variable) as a function of the parameters or
factors (independent variable) by understanding the topography of the respondence surface
involving the local maximum and minimum and ridge lines and finding the zone where the most
appropriate response appears (Yüksel, n.d.).

References:
Ratnaweera, H., Ødegaard, H., & Fettig, J. (1992). Coagulation with Prepolymerized Aluminium
Salts and Their Influence on Particle and Phosphate Removal. Water Science &
Technology, 1229-1237.
Duffy, S., & van Loon, G. (1995). Investigations of aluminum hydroxyphosphates and activated
sludge by 27Al and 31P MAS NMR. Can. J. Chem, 1645-1659.
Jiang, J.-Q. (2001). Development of Coagulation Theory and Prepolymerized Coagulants for
Water Treatment. Separation and Purification Methods, 127–141.
Langer, M., Väänänen, J., Boulestreau, M., Miehe, U., Bourdon, C., & Lesjean, B. (2017).
Advanced phosphorus removal via coagulation, flocculation and microsieve filtration in
tertiary treatment. Water Science and Technology, 75(12), 2875–2882.
https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2017.166
Thesis, B. (2015). S Imilar Y Et D Ifferent. (April).

Santos, A. F. S., Luz, L. A., Argolo, A. C. C., Teixeira, J. A., Paiva, P. M. G., & Coelho, L. C. B.
B. (2009). Isolation of a seed coagulant Moringa oleifera lectin. Process Biochemistry,
44(4), 504–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2009.01.002
Kelley, T. R. (2010). Optimization, an important stage of engineering design. Technology
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Merrill, C., Custer, R., Daugherty, J., Westrick, M., & Zeng, Y. (2007). Delivering core
engineering concepts to secondary level students. American Society for Engineering
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Bezerra, M. A., Santelli, R. E., Oliveira, E. P., Villar, L. S., & Escaleira, L. A. (2008). Response
surface methodology (RSM) as a tool for optimization in analytical chemistry. Talanta,
76(5), 965–977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2008.05.019
Yüksel, A. (n.d.). Utilization of Response Surface Methodology in Optimization of of Extraction
Extraction of Optimization of Plant Plant Materials.
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