• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.295-300
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• 2005

The performances of electroflotation (EF) on the thickening of activated sludge were investigated using laboratory scale batch flotation reactors. Four activated sludges including bulking sludges were tested. After 30minutes of EF operation, 57-84 % of sludge volume reduction could be achieved by EF, while only about 1.5-14% could be obtained by gravity thickening for the same period. After thickening the effluent water quality in terms of TCOD, SS, and turbidity was improved by EF operation for all sludge samples. It is induced that the air bubbles entrapped in the thickened sludge play a key role in the observed improvement of sludge thickening and effluent quality.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2005

Recently, water treatment methods utilizing microbubbles such as DAF and EF are gaining interest and being studied. Current study is focused on the fundamental research of electroflotation by examining the characteristics of microbubbles and particles. The objects of this research consist of two things; (1) theoretical modeling of microbubble-particle collision, (2) the experimental investigation of removal efficiency of turbidity in electroflotation. From investigation, the mechanism of electroflotation can be explained not only by the characteristics of microbubbles and particles but also the chemistry of aluminum dissolved from aluminum electrode during the electroflotation experiment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1085-1090
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• 2007

The performance of EF (electroflotation) on the thickening of activated sludge were investigated using laboratory scale batch flotation reactor. In this paper, the effects of parameters such as electrode material, NaCl dosage, initial sludge concentration and electrode distance were examined. The results showed that the performance for sludge thickening of the five electrodes lay in: Pt/Ti > Ru/Ti > Ir/Ti > Ti mesh > Ti plate. The more NaCl dosage was high, the more sludge was thickened and the shorter thickening time was obtained. However, considering the final thickening time and sludge concentration, optimum NaCl dosage was 0.5 g/L. Thickening time and sludge concentration was not affected by electrode distance. In DAF (dissolved air flotation) system, optimum recycle ratio was 40% and thickening performance was lower than that of the EF.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1189-1195
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• 2007

Small gas bubbles are used in many environmental and industrial processes for solid-liquid separations or to facilitate heat and mass transfer between phases. This study examines some of the factors that affect the bubble volume and size processed in the EF (electroflotation) process. The effect of electrode material, NaCl dosage, current and electrode distance were studied. The results showed that the generated bubble volume with electrode material lay in: Pt/Ti ${\fallingdotseq}$ Ru/Ti ${\fallingdotseq}$ Ir/Ti > Ti electrode. The more NaCl dosage was high, the smaller bubble was generated due to the low electric power. Bubble generation was increased with increase of current. With the increase of NaCl dosage, bubble generation was increased at same electric power (16.2 W). Generated bubble volume was not affected by electrode distance. However, no clear trends in bubble size as a function of these parameters were evident.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.551-559
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• 2008

An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the potential of flotation process for the secondary clarifier of an activated sludge process. Flotation techniques, applied in this study, include electrofloation (EF) which generated fine bubbles smaller than $35{\mu}m$ in average and diffuser flotation (DF) which generated fine bubbles smaller than $55{\mu}m$ in average. The batch experiments were done with activated sludge displaying various characteristics. It was shown that the efficiency of solids/liquid separation was reduced as the diluted sludge volume index ($DSVI_{30}$) of activated sludge increased. The dependency, however, gradually decreased as the gas to solids (G/S) ratio increased. Thickening efficiency of EF was more than 2~10 times and DF process was more than 1.5~5 times as compared with gravity sedimentation (GS). Stable sludge blanket was maintained regardless of sludge settleability when the G/S ratio was 0.019 in the EF. On the other hand, Serious deterioration in the sludge blanket was observed in the DF depends on G/S ratio and sludge settleability. And For EF and DF, the suspended solids concentration of effluent was not nearly influenced on settleability of activated sludge and more clear than GS. A biological nutrient removal (BNR) process, combined with EF as a secondary clarifier was operated for three months. The mean MLSS (mixed liquid suspended solids) concentration in the reactor and mean solids concentration of return sludge were estimated to be 5,340 mg/L and 16,770 mg/L, respectively. The water quality of effluent was considerably stable and low value was accomplished, that was, standard suspended solids concentration $0.07{\pm}0.51mg/L$ and standard turbidity $1.44{\pm}0.56NTU$. The EF could be applicable for enhancement of efficiency of activated sludge system as well as improvement of the water quality of effluent.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.349-355
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• 2010

Electroflotation (EF) was conducted for activated sludge thickening to investigate the effects of sludge SVI (sludge volume index) and chemical conditioning. Return sludge samples were used for the experiment, which were collected from municipal wastewater treatment plants. The performance of sludge thickening was significantly dependent on sludge SVI. For the sludges with SVI values in a range from 50 to about 150 mL/g, the maximum float content decreased rapidly from 8.4 to 3.5% and flotation compressibility followed the same pattern. In cases of sludges with SVI higher than 150 mL/g, those results showed low content levels without large changes. Gas/solids ratio tended to increase with an increase in SVI. When polyelectrolyte was added into sludges for the conditioning, compressibility increased up to 75% and gas/solids ratio was reduced up to about 35% under the condition of microbubble production rate of 530 mL/h, however, there was no consistent effect of chemical conditioning on the maximum float solids content; some cases were positive but the others negative. It was expected that the optimum dose of electrolyte depends on sludge SVI and an excessive chemical dose causes a performance deterioration of flotation thickening.