• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.282-286
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• 1997

The floc strength of Escherichia coli was enhanced by adding water soluble polymer flocculants (BPA-5020 and BPA-5000) to the particulate flocculant (BPA-1000) as indicated by the increase in the shear index. The shear index of the E. coli flocs increased from 0.39 with the particulate flocculant alone to 0.94 with the particulate flocculant in conjunction with the water soluble polymer flocculant. In addition, the sedimentation rate of flocs was higher and the sedimented volume of flocs was smaller when the particulate flocculant was used with the water soluble polymer flocculant. When E. coli was flocculated first with the water soluble flocculant and the particulate flocculant was added later into the E. coli flocs formed, the sedimentation rate of the flocs was greater than that of any other combination. The shear index of the flocs was, however, independent of the sequence of the flocculant addition.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2005

The effective removal of turbid-inducing particulates and algae-inducing phosphorous was systematically investigated by the variation of physico-chemical parameters such as pH, alkalinity, and coagulant types. Al(III)-based and Fe(III)-based coagulants exhibited high removal efficiency of turbidity and phosphorous at optimal pH ranges of 7~9, in which zeta potential nearly approached to zero. The removal rate of turbidity rapidly increased with the increase of coagulant dosages, whereas the removal rate of phosphorous gradually increased due to an equivalent reaction of phosphorous with metallic ions. The generation of flocs during coagulation was visualized by high speed camera (Motion Scope 2000, Redlake Co.), and the images of singular flocs were captured by optical microscope. The flocs generated by Fe(III)-based coagulant was more compact than those induced by Al(III)-based coagulant, and the settlabiltiy of Fe(III)-induced flocs was superior to that of Al(III)-induced flocs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.231-240
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• 2011

The objectives of this research are to investigate coagulation efficiencies of two coagulants l.e., alum and polyaluminum chloride and to understand effects of the coagulants on membrane fouling in microfiltration. The turbidity of supernatant from alum coagulation was increased with increasing doses whereas the turbidity from PACl coagulation was maintained at the low values. The observed injection volume of PACl for the same removal was approximately 30 percent less than alum, which produced a low sludge volume. The settling velocity of PACl flocs was greater than alum flocs. The results corresponded well with floc size measurements. Flux decline from alum coagulation was significant due in part to small sizes of flocs. At the low dose, alum floc had less specific cake resistance than PACl floc. However, as the dosage was increased, the increases in specific cake resistances of alum was substantial. Alum coagulation pretreatment needs careful operation to reduce membrane fouling by flocs. In general, PACl coagulants were more effective than alum coagulants for pretreatment of membrane processes because PACl showed the better performance in coagulation and membrane fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.468-474
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• 2006

In the secondary settling tanks, three different types of settling phenomena occurs; i.e., zone settling for sludge thickening in the bottom part of settling tank, and discrete and flocculent settling for clarification in the upper part. In this paper, morphological parameters of the floc in sludge blanket layers along the length of a long rectangular tank were investigated. The plant used for this study had a serious bulking problem caused by Microthrix parvicella. Floc size decreased as the surface area of settling tank increases, which indicates that in the secondary settling tank where zone settling believed to be predominant, free or flocculent type of settling contributes to floc size distributions. Large floc particles deposit in the front zone of settling tank, but small and loose flocs mostly in the zone near its outlet. On the other hand, filament length contained in one gram of sludge blanket solid increases along the flow direction. Large flocs with less filaments settle faster, but small flocs having more filaments result in poor settling. These results support function of microorganism selection occurring in secondary settling tank. In addition, designing a long rectangluar settling tank with double hoppers might be one of the ways of bulking control, but this idea has to be verified with a further study.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.275-285
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• 2008

The floc formation, breakage and reformation of humic acid by inorganic (alum and PAC) and organic coagulants (cationic polyelectrolytes) at several conditions (pH, ionic strength and floc breakage time) were examined and compared among the coagulants at different conditions using a continuous optical monitoring method, with controlled mixing and stirring conditions. For alum, the shapes of formation, breakage and reformation curves at different pH (5 and 7) were different, but the shapes and the sizes of initial floc and reformed floc were nearly the same in the absence and presence of electrolytes at pH 7. For PAC, similar shapes of the curves were obtained at different pH and ionic strength, but the sizes were different, except for those of reformed flocs at different pH. However, for these coagulants, reformed flocs after floc breakage, occurred irreversibly for all the conditions used in this study. For organic coagulants, the time to attain the initial plateau floc size, the extent of floc strength at high shear rate and reversibility of reformed floes were different, depending floc formation mechanism. Especially, for the cationic polyelectrolyte forming humic flocs by charge neutralization or electrostatic patch effect mechanism, reformed flocs occurred reversibly, regardless of pH and floc breakage time, but occurred irreversibly in the presence of electrolytes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.717-726
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• 2007

Fully-grown flocs in a mixing tank of membrane filtration with dead-end membrane are ruptured while passing through a pump and the ruptured flocs are aggregated again in a Membrane-Feed-Pipe (MFP). To look at more details, this study tries to relate the reaggregation to a parameter of mixing intensity in MFP, i.e., G-value. The G-value is a function of Reynolds number, pipe diameter, friction factor and average velocity in MFP. To deal with polydispersity condition, we develop a representative particle size called in this study EDPD (Effective Diameter for Polydispersity condition in Dead-end filtration). The experimental results show that as the G-value increases, the EDPD decreases and also the cake resistance increases. Through comparison between EDPD and cake resistance, these results show that cake resistances are controlled by reaggregation phenomenon in MFP. The effect of detention time in MFP, however, does not affect the reaggregation of the broken flocs as G-values are increased.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.32 no.A
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• pp.21-27
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• 2012

The characteristics of floc formation of the iron(Fe) ions contained in the acid mine drainage was studied for developing the process treating the acid mine drainage. The iron(Fe) ions were formed into flocs by the acid-base reaction with the added $Ca(OH)_2$. The molal ratio of iron(Fe) vs $Ca(OH)_2$ was one of major control variables in treatment; pH change, iron(Fe) ions concentration in treated drainage, DO (dissolved oxygen content). In addition, the air gave much effect on the color of the $iron(Fe)-Ca(OH)_2$ flocs and the attachment to magnet. The attaching to the magnet of the flocs formed in the air was much less than the case without air.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2006

Characteristics of flocculent aggregates have great effects on membrane fouling. Floc from kaolin particles gave higher permeate throughputs than floc from natural particles at the same conditions. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to thoroughly analyze characteristics of flocculated aggregates and to investigate effects of flocculated aggregates on membrane fouling. Image analysis, specific rake resistance and cake compressibility were used for characterization of flocs. Different flocculent aggregates formed with natural and kaolin particles were employed in this study. The fractal dimensions from the image analysis were $D_2=1.79{\pm}0.07$ for floc from natural particles and $D_2=1.84{\pm}0.06$ for floc from kaolin particles. The lower fractal dimension($D_2$) of floc from natural particles indicated that the aggregates were more porous and less compact than floe from kaolin particles. In addition, both the specific cake resistances and compressible degrees of flocs from natural particles showed greater values than those of flocs from kaolin particles. The results implied that the porous and loose flocs from natural particles were more easily compressed on membrane surface than the dense and compact flocs from kaolin particles. The compressed flocs yielded the great hydraulic resistances by hindering the water flow through the cake layer.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.45-53
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• 2005

A novel method for evaluating the anisotropy of the deterministic features in a stochastic 2D data is introduced. The ability of the wavelet transform for the identification of the abrupt discontinuities could be used to characterize the boundary of the deterministic area in a 2D stochastic data, such as flocs in paper structure. The one-dimensional wavelet transform with a small-scale range in MD and CD could quantify the amount of the edge in both directions, depending on the intensity of each floc. The flocs that are aligned in the MD direction result in a higher value of local wavelet energy in the CD direction. Therefore, the ratio of the total wavelet energy in CD and MD directions can be used as a new anisotropy index. This index is a measure of the floc-orientation and can provide an excellent tool to obtain the orientation distribution and the major oriented angle of flocs. Various simulated images and real stochastic data such as local gloss variation of printed image and formation image, have been tested and the results show this analysis method is very reliable to measure the anisotropy of the deterministic features.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.245-255
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• 2006

Dissolved air flotation is a solid-liquid separation system that uses fine bubbles rising from bottom to remove particles in water. In order to enhance the flotation velocity and removal efficiency of flocs in the flotation process, we tried to obtain pretreatment conditions for the optimum DAF process operation by comparing and evaluating features of actual floc formation and flotation velocity etc, according to coagulant types and conditions for flocculation mixing intensity by using PIA, PDA, and FSA. Accordingly, generating big flocs that have low density at low flocculation mixing intensity may reduce treatment efficiency. In addition, generating small flocs at high flocculation mixing intensity makes floc-bubbles smaller, which reduces flotation velocity, In this study, it was found that high flocculation mixing intensity could not remove the remaining micro-particles after flocculation, which had negative effects on treated water quality, Therefore, in order to enhance treatment efficiency in a flotation process, flocculation mixing intensity around $50sec^{-1}$ is effective.