Experimental investigation and modelling the effect of humic acid on coagulation efficiency for sludge blanket clarifier

The physicochemical process of coagulation has largely been used for turbidity removal for water treatment. However, lately, the intrusion of NOM (Natural organic matter) in the surface water sources due to climate change has impeded the dosing approaches and has presented a requirement to evaluate the effect of NOM on turbidity removal efficiency and the performance of coagulation reactors in general. In this work, a previously developed performance model for hydraulic flocculators was modified and tested for a sludge blanket clarifier (SBC) which is a type of hydraulic flocculator. The experimental runs were conducted by preparing synthetic sample waters by using humic acid (for NOM) and kaolin clay (for turbidity). PACl (Poly aluminium chloride) was used as a coagulant. The expression of attachment efficiency has been modified to include the interactions of humic acid (HA) and kaolin, which were not previously accounted for in the model. The coverage functions were used to calculate the attachment efficiency of HA-PACl and PACl-Clay. The standalone coverage function Gamma(PACl-HA) efficiently predicted the doses where the removal efficiency was maximum. However, the coverage function Gamma(Clay-PACl) was impacted by the hydrodynamic conditions in SBC and over-speculated the Clay-PACl interactions. The RMSE value was low for the modified equation indicating that in SBC the interactions between the organic and inorganic impurities are significant. The HA-Kaolin interactions were found to be significant in the modified model in case of a low HA range of 4 and 8 mg/L of HA. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study investigates the impact of NOM on the coagulation process, modifying a performance model for hydraulic flocculators and testing it on a sludge blanket clarifier. The interactions between humic acid and kaolin were found to significantly affect turbidity removal efficiency in the coagulation process.