Roles of functional microbial flocculant in dyeing wastewater treatment: Bridging and adsorption

Congo red (CR) is a typical and widely used azo dye in industries. It possesses the serious threat to ecosystem and public for its indiscriminate discharge. Microbial flocculant (MBF) with various functional groups is a potential flocculant applied in dyeing wastewater treatment, and it has the advantages of high treatment efficiency, biodegradability and non-toxicity. In this study, the functional groups, amino group, ammonium group and acyloxy group, were grafted onto MBF to further improve its thermal stability, solubility and performance. Grafting copolymerization occurred at the amino group of MBF was confirmed by XPS. Polyaluminum silicate (PSA) and self-prepared functional microbial flocculant, MBF-g-P(AM-DAC), played different roles in CR wastewater treatment. PSA contributed to charge neutralization, but its yielded flocs were small. On the contrary, MBF-g-P(AM-DAC) possessed weak charge neutralization but big flocs. Its settlement efficiency has significantly improved. The unsaturated active sites on MBF-g-P(AM-DAC) and its flocs contributed to the adsorption of CR in terms of high surface area and adsorption capacity of the flocs. Physical adsorption and chemical adsorption were both discovered in the treatment.