Status: this preprint was under review for the journal DWES. A revision for further review has not been submitted.
Clay-biodegradable polymer combination for pollutant removal from water
M. F. Mohd Amin,S. G. J. Heijman,and L. C. Rietveld
Abstract. In this study, a new treatment alternative is investigated to remove micropollutants from wastewater effectively and in a more cost-effective way. A potential solution is the use of clay in combination with biodegradable polymeric flocculants. Flocculation is viewed as the best method to get the optimum outcome from the combination of clay with starch. Clay is naturally abundantly available and relatively inexpensive compared to the conventional adsorbents used. Experimental studies were carried out with four different clays to select the best clay for further optimisation. The atrazine removal achieved is in the range of 10–99 % based on the clay concentration of 10–50 g L−1. Optimisation of the best clay performer leads towards atrazine reduction of > 99 % with a dosage of 100 mg L−1. The best and underperforming clays were then tested in other experiments with the addition of cationic starch flocculants. In this experiment, the addition of a polymer increased the atrazine removal for the underperforming clay to 46 % with only 10 mg L−1 clay dosages. The clay flocculation test was also performed to test the flocculation efficiency of clays by the polymer. Approximately 80–84 % of the clay is flocculated, which shows exceptional flocculation efficiency in removing both clays and atrazine from the water matrices.
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, Locked Bag 100, 17600 Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia
Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, the Netherlands
S. G. J. Heijman
Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, the Netherlands
L. C. Rietveld
Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, the Netherlands
In this study, the use of clay in combination with biodegradable polymeric flocculants is investigated to remove micropollutants from wastewater effectively. Experimental studies were carried out with four different clays to select the best clay for further optimisation. The removal achieved is in the range of 10-99% based on the clay concentration of 10 mg/L-50 g/L. The clay flocculation efficiency test leads towards 80-84% of the clay being flocculated by the polymer from the water matrixes.
In this study, the use of clay in combination with biodegradable polymeric flocculants is...
- Printer-friendly version
- Supplement
