Pertemuan 11: flocculation, coagulation and sedimentation

Flocculation, in the field of chemistry, is a process wherein colloids come out of suspension in the
form of floc or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The action
differs from precipitation in that, prior to flocculation, colloids are merely suspended in a liquid and
not actually dissolved in a solution. In the flocculated system, there is no formation of a cake, since
all the flocs are in the suspension.

Coagulation and flocculation are important processes in water treatment with coagulation to
destabilize particles through chemical reaction between coagulant and colloids, and flocculation to
transport the destabilized particles that will cause collisions with floc.

According to the IUPAC definition, flocculation is "a process of contact and adhesion whereby the
particles of dispersion form larger-size clusters". Flocculation is synonymous with agglomeration
and coagulation / coalescence.[3][4]

Basically, coagulation is a process of addition of coagulant to destabilize a stabilized charged

particle. Meanwhile, flocculation is a mixing technique that promotes agglomeration and assists in
the settling of particles. The most common used coagulant is alum, Al2(SO4)3 • 14 H2O.

The chemical reaction involved:

Al2(SO4)3 • 14 H2O → 2 Al(OH)3(s) + 6 H+ + 3 SO42- + 8 H2O

During flocculation, gentle mixing accelerates the rate of particle collision, and the destabilized
particles are further aggregated and enmeshed into larger precipitates. Flocculation is affected by
several parameters, including mixing speeds, mixing intensity, and mixing time. The product of the
mixing intensity and mixing time is used to describe flocculation processes.

Surface chemistry

In colloid chemistry, flocculation refers to the process by which fine particulates are caused to
clump together into a floc. The floc may then float to the top of the liquid (creaming), settle to the
bottom of the liquid (sedimentation), or be readily filtered from the liquid. Flocculation behavior of
soil colloids is closely related to freshwater quality. High dispersibility of soil colloids not only
directly causes turbidity of the surrounding water but it also induces eutrophication due to the
adsorption of nutritional substances in rivers and lakes and even boats under the sea.

Physical chemistry

For emulsions, flocculation describes clustering of individual dispersed droplets together, whereby
the individual droplets do not lose their identity.[5] Flocculation is thus the initial step leading to
further ageing of the emulsion (droplet coalescence and the ultimate separation of the phases).
Flocculation is used in mineral dressing
Grammar focus: Dangling participles/dangling modifier/illogical participial modifier

Examples:

Incorrect: after jumping out of boat, the shark bit the man

Correct: after jumping out the boat, the man was bitten by a shark

By, upon, before, after, while, gerund, having.

1. Being thoroughly dissatisfied with the picture, the person hides the picture in the
closet.
2. Seeing the advancing army, all valuable were hidden under the stairwell
3. Plunging into the water, the drowning child was rescued
4. Criticizing the defendant for his cruel behavior, the judge hand a sentence
5. After painting the car, it was given to the man’s wife by the man
6. Being an early riser, it was easy for Edna to adjust to her company’s new summer
schedule.
7. After winning the tennis match, the victory made Nancy jump for joy
8. Having wandered through the mountain passes for days, an abandoned shack
where they could take shelter was discovered by the hikers
9. Being very protective of its young, all those who approach the nest are attacked
by the mother eagle.
10.Before playing ball, a two-minute period of silence was observed by the baseball
players for their recently deceased team mate.
Supplementary reading (https://eprints.qut.edu.au/11145/1/11145.pdf)

Introduction

Removal of impurities (consisting of both soluble and insoluble non-sugar compounds) from

cane sugar juice by clarification is an essential part of the process of raw sugar manufacture. In

the Australian cane sugar milling industry, the clarification process is best described as simple

defecation. This process is based on the addition of lime as lime saccharate (i.e. lime dissolved
o
in sugar syrup) to heated juice at about 76 C in order to raise the juice pH to between 7.8-8.0 and
1
prevent inversion of sucrose. This is followed by secondary heating of the limed juice under
o
pressure to approximately 103 C and flashing to remove dissolved air. The de-aerated juice then

enters the clarifier. At this stage the juice contains insoluble calcium salts formed from the

reaction between free calcium ions supplied by the lime saccharate and inorganic phosphate from

the raw cane sugar juice. These precipitated calcium phosphate microfloc particles act as a sweep

flocculant in the clarifier, removing suspended matter from the juice and adsorbing dissolved
1
molecules and ions. The particle size in primary juice is between 0.5 and 5 microns in diameter,

8 9 -1 2
with a number concentration between 2.5 × 10 and 1.2 × 10 L . To increase the settling rate

of the calcium phosphate microfloc particles and improve the efficiency of separation of the

liquid-solid system, an anionic flocculant (a high molecular weight copolymer of acrylamide

(AAm) and sodium acrylate) is added to the juice. The clarified juice is collected from the top of

the clarifier and sent to the evaporator station for concentration.

Adsorption of an AAm-sodium acrylate copolymer to microfloc particles may proceed by any of

3
three mechanisms: (a) attraction of the negatively charged acrylate groups to positive charges on

the surface of the microfloc particles; (b) attraction of the negatively charged acrylate groups to

2+
dipositive ionic “bridges” (e.g., Ca ), which are adsorbed to negative charges on the microfloc

particles; and (c) hydrogen or dipolar bonding between the AAm groups and the microfloc
particles. In cane sugar juice, although binding of microflocs most likely proceeds primarily

4
by calcium bridging of the charged acrylate group, it is still possible that the other two

mechanisms may be important under some conditions. In the flocculation of colloidal silica

5
(present in cane sugar juice), similar effectiveness was seen with copolymers of AAm

containing either a cationic or anionic comonomer suggesting that the uncharged polar amide

6
groups are more important in binding to silica. Whatever the chemical basis of adsorption to

particle surfaces, it is clear that the physical properties of the flocculant are responsible for the

distinctive features of

flocculation. Under shear, large flocs joined by dynamic polymer bridges will be stronger than

the brittle flocs formed by primary coagulation, allowing aggregation in the shear-controlled

7
(orthokinetic) domain rather than the simple-diffusion (perikinetic) domain. This in turn

will lead to geometric rather than arithmetic growth, giving the distinctive rapid flocculation

8
and macroscopic morphology of flocs generated using a polymeric flocculant.

In a system as complex as unclarified cane sugar juice, it is evident that no single flocculant

will give optimal removal of all suspended particles. This is because of the polydispersity

and chemical heterogeneity of the suspended particles. In the treatment of coal fines and other

industrial applications, the combination of a relatively low molecular weight cationic

polymer and a high molecular weight anionic flocculant has been shown to give

improvements in

9-12
clarification. The cationic polymer most likely aggregates small, highly charged
particles
which are not adsorbed by the anionic flocculant. The mechanism of this process is related to

the density of the charges on the polymers vis-à-vis the density of charges on the particle

surfaces. The three main mechanisms for the process are charge-charge annihilation, charge-

patch flocculation and cationic bridging.

A number of cationic polymers have been claimed to enhance the flocculation of cane sugar

5,13
juice. However, the authors are aware of the inconclusive results from some Australian

sugar mills that have trialled cationic polymers in combination with an anionic flocculant.

This paper forms part of an on-going effort to synthesize and optimize cationic polymers to

enhance the clarification of cane sugar juice, where they are used in combination with a

high molecular weight poly(AAm-co-sodium acrylate). In an early stage of the investigation,

tests carried out on commercial cationic homopolymers of poly(trimethylammonium ethyl

methylacrylate chloride) [TMAEMAC] and cationic copolymers of poly

(trimethylammonium ethyl acrylate chloride) [TMAEAC] and AAm were the only ones to

3
show reasonable effectiveness in improved cane sugar juice clarification. As a result, a

number of these polymers with varying molecular weights (estimated in terms of intrinsic

viscosity, a good empirical measure of random-coil volume) were prepared and tested for their

effectiveness to enhance flocculation. The cationic monomer contents of the copolymers

prepared were also varied.