Professional Documents
Culture Documents
9, No 1, 31-36
Abstract: Three different coagulating agents, Iraqi-produced alum, Swedish-produced alum, and labora-
tory-produced polyaluminum chloride (PAC) were used to clarify samples taken from Iraqi river water.
A laboratory rig was built to produce PAC from the reaction between hydrochloric acid and aluminum
powder. The results after raw water treatment showed that the dosage of PAC required for treatment was
98% less than that of alum when it was applied to water at a low turbidity and almost 90% less in the
case of much higher turbidity. The application of PAC produced rapidly forming flocs and more com-
pact sludge compared to that of alum. However, there were no significant changes in the pH of the solu-
tion. From the results obtained, the PAC agent performed better compared to alum and might be consid-
ered a good alternative to alum for raw water and waste water treatment.
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1. Introduction
Water generally contains suspended and colloidal (1) particle transport to affect particle contacts, and
solids from land erosion, decaying, vegetation, (2) particle destabilization to permit attachment when
microorganisms, and color-producing compounds. contact occurs.
Coarser materials such as sand and silt can be elimi- Particle transport in an aqueous systems is essen-
nated to a considerable extent by plain sedimentation, tially a physical process, which is accomplished by
but finer particles, such as those between 1-100 mm, Brownian diffusion, fluid motion, and sedimentation.
must be chemically coagulated to produce larger flocs It can be controlled by physical parameters such as
which are removable in subsequent settling and filtra- temperature, velocity gradient, and particle size.
tion (Mark 1975). Particle destabilization is clearly a colloidal - chemical
In considering the aggregation of particles in a col- process which can be controlled by both chemical and
loidal dispersion, it is useful to distinguish between physical parameters (Stumm, Charles 1968). There are
two distinct steps: many substances which react suitably with water to
_________________________________________
*Corresponding author’s e-mail: salam@unizwa.edu.om
32
produce such an effect, known collectively as coagu- other types of coagulants such as Iraqi and
lants. The precipitate so formed in the water is called Swedish produced alums.
the floc. The larger and heavier the floc is, the quick- 3- Waste aluminum use: To test the efficacy of mak-
er the rate of settlement (George 1988). Commonly ings use of waste aluminum powder from an alu-
used coagulants in water treatment are: minum plant to produce PAC on a laboratory scale
based on the reaction between aluminum powder
1. Coagulats based on aluminum, such as aluminum and hydrochloric acid.
sulfate (Al2(SO4)3.18H2O), sodium aluminates
(Na3AlO3), poly aluminum chloride 2. Experimental Work
[Al2(OH)xCl6-x]n, potash aluminum (AlK(SO4)2 .
12H2O), and ammonia aluminum (AlNH4(SO4)2 . 2.1 Material Preparation
12H2O), 2.1.1 Alum Preparation
2. Coagulats based on iron, such as ferric sulfate As stated above, two types of alums, Swedish pro-
(FeSO4.7H2O), chlorinated copperas, and ferric duced alum (consisting of 9.63% Al2O3) and Iraqi pro-
chloride (FeCl3), and duced alum (consisting of 9.28% Al2O3) were used for
3. Polyelectrolytes, which are long-chain synthetic comparison. For raw water treatment, an alum solu-
polymers with a high molecular weight. These tion was required. For such, a 1% alum solution was
organic chemicals are commercially available prepared by dissolving 10 grams of crystal alum in 1
under a wide variety of trade names (Mark 1975). liter of distilled water.
Generally, the type of coagulants and aids available 2.1.2 Polyaluminum Chloride Production
are defined by the plant process scheme and of course, Poly aluminum chloride was produced at the labo-
dosages of these substances can be regulated to meet ratory by dissolving 2.7 grams of aluminum powder
changes in raw water quality. Also, mechanical mixing (99.9%) in 100 ml of boiled hydrochloric acid solution
can be adjusted by varying the speed of the flocculator of 0.1N. The total normality of the reactant solution
paddles. would be around 1 N (Kohlschutter et al. 1942; Alcoa
Jar tests are widely used to determine optimum World Chemicals 2001).
chemical dosages for treatment. This laboratory test The hydrochloric acid solution and aluminum pow-
attempts to simulate the full-scale coagulation-floccu- der were placed in a two-neck 250 ml flask of as
lation process and can be conducted for a wide range shown in Fig. (1). A temperature thermometer was
of conditions. The interpretation of test results placed in one neck while the other neck was connect-
involves visual and chemical testing of the clarified ed to a glass condenser in order to reduce loss of HCl
water. through vaporization. The flask was heated via hot
PAC has been found by others to be an acceptable metal equipped with a temperature regulator in order
alternative flocculating and coagulating agent for to bring the reaction to a suitable operating heat level,
drinking water, waste water, and industrial water treat- and the temperature was then adjusted to 80 °C.
ment (ClearTech Inc. 2008; Alhadidi et al. 2009). The reaction time was considered to be the time at
Halvadiya et al. (2008) used PAC to clarify turbid which the sample’s dark color disappeared, the solu-
lake water, in their work, and found that the required tion become transparent, and all HCL vapor had been
dosage of PAC was 60% less than that of alum. Many removed. The determined time was 5 hours. After the
companies, such as Prakash Chemical Agencies reaction, the sample was drawn and analyzed. The
Private of India and the Qikang Company of China results showed that the specific gravity of the product
manufacture PAC for water treatment using different was 1.078 and, therefore, the net weight of the sample
types of raw materials. was 97 g (7 grams of salt and 90 grams of water). The
The purposes of this work are as follows: laboratory analysis of the produced PAC is presented
in Table 1.
1- Experimental testing: Since locally produced alum
is highly impure and many operating problems 2.2 Turbidity Test
can occur in its production (Al-Dawery, Butris Turbidity level was considered the criterion index
2002), PAC is considered an alternative coagulant for water clarity. Thus, conventional jar testing equip-
and has to be tested experimentally. ment was used for this purpose. Before testing, sam-
2- Product comparison: The intent of this work was ples of untreated raw water were collected from differ-
also perform a comparison between PAC and ent sites along the Tigres River and yielded different
levels of turbidity such as 30, 150, 550 and 800 floriz-
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Concentration mg/l
Concentration mg/l
Figure 3. Relation between residual turbidity and coagulat conentration at a 150 FTU level
coagulant was required to overcome these forces, PAC has a higher hydrolysis characteristic than other
enhance van der Waals force and decrease zeta poten- alums, which may lead to the enhancement of adsorp-
tial. tion of the present coordinated hydroxide group.
However, lower dosages of PAC were required for Simple hydroxide ions may bind strongly to many
all turbidity levels. This could be due to the fact that solid surfaces. Alternatively, the replacement of an
35
Concentration mg/l
Figure 4. Relation between residual turbidity and coagulant concentration at 550 FTU level
Figure 5. Relation betwen residual turbidity and coagulant concentration at 800 FTU level
36