Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124

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Separation and Purication Technology

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Effect of Al species in polyaluminum silicate chloride (PASiC)

on its coagulation performance in humic acidkaolin synthetic water
Zhonglian Yang, Bin Liu, Baoyu Gao , Yan Wang, Qinyan Yue
Shandong Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road,
Jinan 250100, Shandong, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The relative importance of three different Al species (Ala, Alb and Alc) in polyaluminum silicate chloride
Received 23 July 2011 (PASiC) was investigated in terms of coagulation removal efciency and oc characteristic during the
Received in revised form 12 March 2013 coagulation of humic acidkaolin clay (HAKaolin) synthetic solution. Coagulation performance of PASiC
Accepted 24 March 2013
(Al/Si molar ratio of 10:1) was also compared with that of polyaluminum chloride (PAC). Three PASiC
Available online 2 April 2013
coagulants with Ala, Alb and Alc dominant in one of them were denoted as PASiCa, PASiCb and PASiCc,
respectively. The results showed that PASiCb performed the best turbidity and DOC removal, followed
Keywords:
by PASiCc and PASiCa, while PASiCb and PASiCc removed UV254 more efciently than PASiCa. At low dos-
Al species
Polyaluminum silicate chloride (PASiC)
ages (14 mg/L), ocs formed by PASiCb and PASiCc coagulation had higher zeta potential than those by
Coagulation efciency PASiCa coagulation. However, order of zeta potential was PASiCa > PASiCc > PASiCb at high dosage of
Floc aggregation 18 mg/L. Both coagulation efciency and zeta potential were observed to be maximal at pH of 6. Zeta
potential of formed ocs formed by PASiCc coagulation was the highest followed by PASiCb and PASiCa
(in decreasing order) in pH range of 48, while PASiCa coagulation showed highest zeta potential
followed by PASiCb and PASiCc at pH 9. The average size of ocs formed by three PASiC coagulants varied
according to the following order: PASiCa > PASiCb > PASiCc. The oc equivalent diameters obtained by
PASiCb coagulation were invariable with pH variation. Strength factors and recovery factors of ocs
formed by PASiCc coagulation were larger than those by PASiCa and PASiCb coagulation within all inves-
tigated pHs.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Coagulation is an important process for the removal of colloidal
particles and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in water and waste-
water treatment [1]. As coagulation efciency greatly depends on
coagulant type [2,3], it is necessary to produce pre-polymerized
coagulants by the introduction of several additives in order to
improve their performance [4].
Al-based coagulants, such as alum, AlCl3, polyaluminum chlo-
ride (PAC), are widely used in drinking water treatment to enhance
the removal of particulate, colloidal, and dissolved substances
[5,6]. The advantages of PAC over traditional Al-based coagulants
(e.g. alum and AlCl3) are associated with its reduced acidity, less
dependence on temperature and pH, low sludge production and
denser ocs [7,8]. As dened by ferron-timed complexation spec-
troscopy method, hydrolyzed Al species can be divided into three
types: Ala (instantaneously reacting monomeric species), Alb (med-
ium polymeric species reacting within rst 2 h) and Alc (colloidal
or solid species that does not react with ferron) [9]. Ala fraction
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 531 88366771; fax: +86 531 88364513.
E-mail address: baoyugao_sdu@yahoo.com.cn (B. Gao).
is the most unstable species in primary coagulants and can trans-
form into Alb and Alc species after dosing, while Alc species are
quite stable after formation. It was observed that percentage of
Ala species in PAC decreased with increase of OH/Al molar ratio
(basicity, B), resulting in stable Al speciation distribution after dos-
ing [9,10]. It has been recognized that Al speciation distribution in
PAC is closely related to its coagulation performance. Many
researchers have conrmed that Alb content is closely correlated
to Al13 [11], the most active species for coagulation/precipitation
[12,13].
Concerning morphology and coagulating characteristics, molec-
ular weight and size of PAC for aggregating action and its stability
to resist further hydrolysis are still much lower than those of
organic polymeric occulants. In order to overcome this drawback,
activated silica (polysilicate, PSi) could be added as inorganic addi-
tive into PAC to produce polyaluminum silicate chloride composite
(PASiC) [14]. As a new type of inorganic polymer coagulant, PASiC
could perform enhanced aggregation capacity and promote forma-
tion of bigger and denser ocs in water/wastewater treatment due
to improvement of its molecular weight [8,1416]. Compared to
PAC, the superiority of PASiC is related to its better coagulation re-
moval efciency at lower dosage, wider effective pH range and

1383-5866/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2013.03.040
120 Z. Yang et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124

lower residual Al concentration in treated water. Previous re- Table 1

searches were focused on impact of B value, Al/Si molar ratio, dos- Characteristics of PAC and PASiC.

age, preparation technique and pH on coagulation performance of Coagulant AlT (mol Al/L) B Ala (%) Alb (%) Alc (%)
PASiC [14,17,18]. And very limited work was concerned on the PAC20 0.94 2.0 29.08 31.26 39.65
effect of Al species on coagulation performance and oc character- PASiC20 0.86 2.0 30.50 35.04 34.46
istic of PASiC. PASiCa 0.18 0 86.08 12.47 1.46
This study aims at investigating the effect of Al species on char- PASiCb 0.045 Puried from PAC20 3.62 90.21 6.17
PASiCc 0.50 2.4 6.93 27.38 65.69
acteristics of PASiC in humic acidkaolin synthetic water. Three
PASiC coagulants were prepared by mixing PSi with different PAC
samples in which dominant fractions were Ala, Alb and Alc. Perfor-
mances of these new coagulants in HAKaolin synthetic water amount of HA stock solution and kaolin were added into deionized
treatment were evaluated in terms of turbidity, UV254 and dis- water to obtain HAkaolin synthetic water. Raw water pH was
solved organic carbon (DOC) removal efciencies and efuent pH. adjusted to predetermined value by 0.1 mol/L HCl or 0.1 mol/L
Additionally, oc properties in coagulation process were also NaOH solutions. Properties of the synthetic water were: HA con-
examined in this study by a laser diffraction instrument Mastersiz- tent = 10 mg/L, turbidity = 15.0 0.5 NTU, UV254 absorbance =
er 2000. 0.269 0.002, DOC = 2.747 0.010 mg/L, and pH = 8.62 0.05.

2. Materials and methods 2.3. Jar tests

2.1. Preparation and properties of coagulants
All reagents used to prepare coagulants were of analytical
grade. Deionized water was used to prepare all solutions and to
rinse all glassware. The procedures for preparing each coagulant
were as follows:
(1) AlCl3: directly dissolving 4.83 g AlCl36H2O into 100 mL
deionized water to obtain AlCl3 solution with concentration
of 0.2 mol/L.
(2) Polyaluminum chloride with B = 2.0 (PAC20): mixing 28.97 g
AlCl36H2O and 12.72 g Na2CO3 together in deionized water
at constant speed within 0.5 h. Then the reactor was still
kept under continuous and intense agitation for 1 h at
70.0 0.5 C using recycling water bath [19].
(3) Al13 polymers: Al13 polymer was separated and puried
from PAC20 by ethanolacetone method based on the differ-
ent solubility of different Al species in organic solvent. The
detailed procedures can be found at Ref. [20].
(4) Polyaluminum chloride with B = 2.4 (PACc): mixing 28.97 g
AlCl36H2O and 15.26 g Na2CO3 together in deionized water
under intense agitation for 4 h to prevent sedimentation.
The temperature was also kept at 70.0 0.5 C.
(5) PSi: Na2SiO3 was dissolved into deionized water to obtain
Na2SiO3 solution (0.2 mol/L). The solution was then acidied
with 0.5 mol/L HCl under magnetic stirring and pH = 2.0.
(6) Mixing chemicals from procedures 1, 2, 3, 4 with PSi sepa-
rately under magnetic stirring at Al/Si molar ratio = 10:1 to
obtain PASiCa, PASiC20, PASiCb, PASiCc, respectively.
The total Al content (AlT) was measured by EDTA complexomet-
ric titration method according to the national standard of China
[21]. All coagulant dosages used in this study were in the unit of
mg/L as Al. The ferron-timed complexation spectroscopy method
was used to measure Al speciation distribution of PAC and PASiC
[22]. UV absorbance measurement was performed on a
spectrophotometer (UV754, Shimadzu, Japan) at wavelength of
370 nm. Al speciation distribution properties of PAC and PASiC
were summarized in Table 1.
2.2. HAkaolin synthetic water
HA stock solution was prepared as follows: 1.0 g HA (Ju-Feng
Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) was dissolved into
1000 mL NaOH solution (1.0  104 mol/L) under continuous stir-
ring for 3 h and then stored in refrigerator for later use. A certain
Coagulation experiments were performed on a program con-
trolled jar test apparatus (ZR4-6, Zhongrun Water Industry Tech-
nology Development Co., Ltd., China) containing 1 L water sample
at room temperature of 20 1 C. After predetermined amount of
coagulant was added into water samples, jar tests was started with
a rapid mixing at 200 rpm (G = 102.5 s1) for 1 min, followed by a
mixing at 40 rpm (G = 11.8 s1) for 15 min and then quiescent set-
tling for 30 min. Supernatant samples were withdrawn from about
2 cm below solution surface for subsequent measurements. An
unltered sample was used for turbidity measurement by 2100P
turbidimeter (Hach, USA) and zeta potential measurement by Zeta-
sizer 3000HSa (Malvern Instruments, UK). And a ltered sample
through 0.45 lm glass ber membrane was tested for DOC by
TOC analyzer (TOC-VCPH, Shimadzu, Japan) and UV254 absorbance
at 254 nm wave length by UV254 spectrophotometer (Jinghua
Science and Technology Instrument Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China).
2.4. Floc size, breakage and regrowth
Coagulation experiments were carried out on a cylindrical jar
tester as Section 2.3. In oc regrowth tests, ocs were exposed to
shear force of 200 rpm for 5 min after slow mixing phase and then
slow mixing at 40 rpm was reintroduced for another 15 min.
Suspended samples were collected from 3 cm below suspension
surface. As coagulation proceeded, evolution of particle size was
monitored by a laser diffraction instrument Mastersizer 2000 (Mal-
vern, UK) every 30 s and the corresponding data were automati-
cally recorded. In this study, 50 percentile oc size (d50) was
used to denote oc size. Floc strength and recovery factors, which
had been previously used to compare the relative breakage-resist
and regrowth properties of ocs in different occulating systems
[23,24], were calculated as follows:
d2
Strength factor  100 1
d1
d3  d2
Recovery factor  100 2
d1  d2
where d1 (lm) is average oc size at steady phase before breakage,
d2 (lm) is oc size after breakage, and d3 (lm) is oc size after re-
growth. A larger strength factor indicates that ocs are less sensitive
to breakage as a result of increased shear rate, and larger recovery
factor indicates better recoverability of ocs after high shear.
 Z. Yang et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124 121

3. Results and discussion PAC20 dosage increase, resulting in decrease of turbidity removal
efciency at higher dosages. Turbidity elimination also declined
3.1. Effect of coagulant dosage on coagulation performance of PAC and for PASiCa occulation at dosage of 18 mg/L as a result of re-stabil-
PASiC ization. In addition, coagulation tests using PASiCb resulted in en-
hanced turbidity removal than using PASiCc and PASiCa within all
Coagulation optimization tests of different coagulants were investigated dosages. This was well consistent with ndings of
rstly performed in dosage range of 118 mg/L under raw water previous literature, which conrmed that Alb was the most ef-
pH conditions. Turbidity removal, organic matter removal, efuent cient species for turbidity removal because of its high stability
pH and zeta potential were investigated with corresponding re- and positive charge [9,26]. Among all PASiC coagulants, the highest
sults shown in Fig. 1. turbidity removal was achieved by PASiC20 coagulation at dosage
As shown in Fig. 1a, turbidity removal performance of PASiC20 beyond 4 mg/L. On the one hand, PSi addition could allow an en-
increased as dosage increased from 1 mg/L to 6 mg/L, and the hanced attachment to metal hydroxide precipitates. On the other
removal efciency remained steady as dosage further increased be- hand, with low charge neutralization effect, Al species in PASiC20
yond 6 mg/L. PAC20 exhibited more efcient turbidity removal than played a role in larger dosage range and prevented re-stabilization
PASiC20 in dosages of 13 mg/L, and this was related to the inferior to some extent.
settleability of ocs formed by PASiC20 coagulation [25]. However, The results in Fig. 1b indicated that continuously increasing
this trend became reversed for turbidity removal of PAC20 and UV254 removal was achievable at increasing dosages for all coagu-
PASiC20 at higher dosages. By comparison with PASiC20 coagula- lants, while this trend occurred insignicantly at dosage beyond
tion, higher zeta potential by PAC20 coagulation was observed in 4 mg/L. In terms of UV254 removal, PAC20 performed better than
Fig. 1e, which indicated that re-stabilization occurred easily with PASiC20 in low dosage range of 16 mg/L, while the difference

100 95
95
a 90 b
Turbidity removal efficiency (%)

90
UV254 removal efficiency (%)
85
85
80
75
80 PAC20
70
PAC20
65 75 PASiC20
60 PASiC20
PASiCa
55 70
PASiCa PASiCb
50
45
PASiCb 65 PASiCc
40 PASiCc
35 60
30
55
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Coagulant Dosage (mg Al/L) Coagulant Dosage (mg Al/L)

65 9.0
c PAC20 d
60
PASiC20 8.5
DOC removal efficiency (%)

55 PASiCa
PASiCb 8.0
50 PASiCc
Effluent pH

45 7.5

40 7.0 PAC20
35 PASiC20
6.5
30
PASiCa
6.0 PASiCb
25 PASiCc
20 5.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Coagulant Dosage (mg Al/L) Coagulant Dosage (mg Al/L)

20

15
e
10
Zeta potential (mV)

0 PAC20
PASiC20
-5
PASiCa
-10 PASiCb
PASiCc
-15

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Coagulant Dosage (mg Al/L)

Fig. 1. The dose response and removal performance of coagulants with HAkaolin synthetic water: (a) turbidity removal efciency; (b) UV254 removal efciency; (c) DOC
removal efciency; (d) Efuent pH and (e) Zeta potential.
122 Z. Yang et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124

became negligible at high dosages. UV254 removal of PASiCb and high dosage of 18 mg/L, due to re-stabilization occurrence of parti-
PASiCc was more efcient than that of PASiCa at all tested dosages. cles, zeta potential varied according to the following order:
According to other researches, most ocs formed by Ala fraction PASiCa > PASiCc > PASiCb. This was in accordance with turbidity re-
were small and difcult to settle, while Alb and Alc species could moval order at 18 mg/L (PASiCb > PASiCc > PASiCa).
remove NOM more efciently [27]. It was also observed from
Fig. 1b that UV254 removal efciency of PASiCc was slightly higher
than that of PASiCb. These results indicated that Alb and Alc (espe- 3.2. Effect of initial pH on coagulation performance of PASiC
cially Alc fraction) were more effective than Ala for UV254 removal.
This conclusion was in accordance with the study by Yan et al. [28]. In order to gain more insight into the roles of different Al spe-
As can be seen from Fig. 1c, DOC removal efciencies of all coagu- cies, jar tests were further carried out to investigate the effect of
lants increased within the tested dosage range except those by pH on PASiC coagulation process with respect to HAkaolin
PASiCa coagulation in dosage range of 418 mg/L. PASiC20 per- synthetic water at optimal dosage of 3 mg/L. The results of turbid-
formed more efcient DOC removal than PAC20 in the dosage range ity, UV254, DOC removal efciencies and zeta potential with pH var-
of 218 mg/L. It was also found from Fig. 1c that DOC removal ef- iation were summarized in Fig. 2.
ciency of PASiCb was higher than that of PAC, while both of them As shown in Fig. 2a, an obviously upward trend was observed
showed superior DOC reduction than PASiCc and PASiCa in dosage for turbidity removal with pH increase regardless of coagulant
range of 418 mg/L. In terms of DOC removal, the most efcient type. Turbidity removal efciency of PASiCb was higher than those
coagulant seems to be PASiCb due to its high neutralization ability of PASiCa and PASiCc within all investigated pH. In addition, turbid-
of Alb species [29]. ity elimination of PASiC was less sensitive to pH variation due to
As shown in Fig. 1d, efuent pH after coagulation decreased higher stabilization and charge neutralization capacity of Alb frac-
with dosage increase due to hydrolyzation of Al-based coagulants. tion at all pH values [30,31]. Added to this, PSi addition did not
As dosage increased, efuent pH by PASiCa coagulation system de- weaken the charge neutralization capacity of Alb distinctly, but
creased more signicantly, followed by PASiC20 and PAC20 (in facilitated the bridging and sweep capacity.
decreasing order). The efuent pH decreased more evidently by With pH increase from 4 to 9, variation of UV254 removal ef-
coagulant with high Ala content because hydrolyzation was caused ciency for three coagulants showed the same tendency: increasing
mainly by Ala. Alb and Alc fractions in coagulant were quite stable rst and decreasing subsequently, the maximal removal of UV254
once formation [27]. The results in Fig. 1e reected that zeta poten- was achievable at pH of 6. In parallel, PASiCc exhibited the most
tial of ocs formed by PASiC20 coagulation was lower than that by efcient UV254 removal performance followed by PASiCb and
PAC20 coagulation within the entire dosages, indicating the weaker PASiCa (in descending order), indicating that Alc fraction in PASiC
charge neutralization ability of PASiC20 in comparison with PAC20. is the most contributive species for UV254 reduction. As suggested
At lower dosages (14 mg/L), zeta potential of ocs formed by by other researchers, the largest molecular weight of PASiCc led to
PASiCb and PASiCc coagulation was higher than that by PASiCa enhanced aggregating efciency and formation of denser ocs for
coagulation, while difference among zeta potential by three PASiC favorable UV254 removal [14,17].
coagulations was negligible at medium dosages (612 mg/L). At From Fig. 2c, it was clear that suitable and optimal initial pH
range was between 5 and 6 for DOC removal using PASiC. This

96

95 a b
Turbidity removal efficiency (%)

92
UV254 removal efficiency (%)

90
88

85 84
PASiCa
PASiCb 80 PASiCa
80
PASiCc PASiCb
76 PASiCc
75
72
4 5 6 7 8 9 4 5 6 7 8 9

60
8
55 c PASiCa 6
d
PASiCb
DOC removal efficiency (%)

4
PASiCc
Zeta potential (mV)

50 2
0
45
-2
40 -4
-6 PASiCa
35
-8 PASiCb
30 -10 PASiCc
-12
25 -14
4 5 6 7 8 9 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fig. 2. The performance of coagulants with pH change for treating HAkaolin synthetic water at dose of 3 mg/L: (a) turbidity removal efciency; (b) UV254 removal efciency;
(c) DOC removal efciency and (d) zeta potential.
 Z. Yang et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124 123

700 700

a 3mg Al/L pH=4 3mg Al/L pH=6

600 600 b
PASCa
500 500 PASCa
PASCb

Floc size d50 (m)

Floc size d50 (m)
PASCc PASCb
400 400
PASCc
300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time (mins) Time (mins)
700

600 c 3mg Al/L pH=9

500 PASCa
Floc size d50 (m)

PASCb
400
PASCc
300

200

100

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time (mins)

Fig. 3. Breakage and regrowth prole of HAkaolin synthetic water ocs at the dosage of 3 mg/L with three different initial pH: (a) pH = 4; (b) pH = 6 and (c) pH = 9.

Table 2
Equivalent diameter (d50), strength and recovery factors of ocs at different pH conditions after 5 min of breakage followed by regrowth for 15 min at the dosage of 3 mg/L.

d50 (lm) pH = 4 pH = 6 pH = 9
Strength factor Recovery factor d50 (lm) Strength factor Recovery factor d50 (lm) Strength factor Recovery factor
PASiCa (273) (86) (949) 570 30 26 579 26 21
PASiCb 469 33 50 478 29 36 460 30 21
PASiCc 237 36 61 264 34 46 351 31 26

observation was in agreement with the ndings by Wang et al. and optimum dosage of 3 mg/L was performed in this section, with
Yan et al. [9,28], who demonstrated that DOC removal by PAC was the corresponding results displayed in Fig. 3. Apart from this,
the most efcient when pH was 5.8. Compared to PASiCc and equivalent diameter (d50), strength factors and recovery factors of
PASiCa, PASiCb performed the highest DOC removal efciency in ocs at different initial pH are also calculated in order to make
all investigated pH, reecting that Alb fraction in PASiC was the more distinct illustration, with results summarized in Table 2.
most efcient species in removing DOC. Meanwhile, DOC removal It can be seen that average oc size in steady phase for PASiC
efciency of PASiCb was less sensitive to pH variation due to the coagulation was observed to vary according to following order:
stabilization of Alb fraction [26]. PASiCa > PASiCb > PASiCc, which indicated that Ala fraction in PASiC
As can be observed from Fig. 2d, the highest zeta potential was contributed most to formation of larger ocs. For PASiCc coagula-
also achievable at pH of 6 regardless of coagulant type. Zeta poten- tion at different pH values, order of oc equivalent diameter
tial of ocs formed by PASiCc coagulation was the highest followed was: pH4 (237 lm) < pH6 (264 lm) < pH9 (351 lm). Yet, oc
by PASiCb and PASiCa at pH range from 4 to 8, while ocs formed by equivalent diameter for PASiCb coagulation revealed insignicant
PASiCa coagulation had the highest zeta potential followed by difference among various pH conditions (469, 478 and 460 lm at
PASiCb and PASiCc at pH 9. This indicated in situ Alb production pH 4, 6 and 9, respectively), and this was due to higher stabiliza-
due to hydrolyzation of PASiCc in acidic condition and PASiCa in tion of Alb fraction [9,26]. The corresponding d50 variation along
alkaline condition. In situ Alb could not combine with PSi immedi- with initial pH could be attributed to the statement that main
ately and subsequently showed higher zeta potential. Neverthe- coagulation mechanism altered as a result of hydrolyzation of
less, PASiCb still performed very well for UV254 removal in all other Al species except Alb. Though equivalent diameters for PASiCc
investigated pH values, which was inherent to above-mentioned coagulation were comparatively small (237, 264 and 351 lm at pH
UV254 removal efciency order for PASiC. Correspondingly, higher of 4, 6 and 9, respectively), PASiCc coagulation system presented
charge neutralization ability of PASiCc resulted in more efcient the most effective UV254 removal at all pH values. By virtue of
UV254 removal performance. larger molecular weight of PASiCc, the corresponding ocs were
denser and had good settleability.
3.3. Breakage and regrowth experiments As listed in Table 2, strength factors and recovery factors of
PASiCc ocs were higher than those of PASiCa and PASiCb ocs
The development of oc size during oc formation, breakage regardless of initial pH variation (since PASiCa coagulation was
and recovery processes at three pH values (4, 6, and 9) and not completed within 16 min at pH of 4, the corresponding
124 Z. Yang et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 111 (2013) 119124
strength and recovery factors were not carried out for compari-
son). This phenomenon indicated that PASiCc ocs displayed
stronger resistance for external shear and better re-growth abil-
ity after breakage. With the largest molecular weight, PASiCc led
to the formation of denser ocs to resist the breakage induced
by external [8,17]. Simultaneously, zeta potential of PASiCc ocs
was observed to achieve the maximum value in pH range from 4
to 8 (Fig. 2d), indicating that strong charge neutralization effect
was responsible for larger recovery factors. In addition, strength
factors of ocs formed by PASiCa coagulation were minimal at
pH of 9 (almost similar as that by PASiCb coagulation at pH of
6). This observation demonstrated that ocs formed by PASiCa
coagulation were fragile though larger ocs were formed under
this situation.
Regardless of coagulant type, recovery factors of ocs were man-
ifested to be higher in acidic condition compared to those in alka-
line condition. According to previous research, recoverability of
ocs provides some indication about internal bonding structure of
ocs [32]. Flocs formed through charge neutralization mechanism
reveal complete recoverability, and inferior re-growth property
was primarily caused by sweep occulation [33,34]. As reported
by Yukselen and Gregory, ocs formed by cationic polyelectrolytes
are more reversible after breakage in the coagulation of Kaolin clay
[23]. Al species would hydrolyze to micromolecule fractions with
charge neutralization as main coagulation mechanism. As shown
in Fig. 2d, compared to alkaline conditions, zeta potential was high-
er in acidic condition and this would subsequently give rise to the
larger recovery factors of ocs in acidic condition.
4. Conclusions
Compared to PAC20, PASiC20 could improve turbidity and DOC
removal performance through enhanced adsorption bridging
mechanism. In terms of turbidity and DOC removal, PASiCb per-
formed the most effective coagulation followed by PASiCc and
PASiCa. However, removal of UV254 by PASiCb and PASiCc was more
efcient than those by PASiCa regardless of dosage and pH varia-
tion. The correlation between zeta potential of ocs formed by
PASiCa, PASiCb and PASiCc coagulation was related to coagulant
dosage and solution pH. The maximal removal performance and
zeta potential was achievable when pH was 6 for PASiCa, PASiCb
and PASiCc. The average oc size in steady phase for PASiCa coagu-
lation was the largest followed by those for PASiCb and PASiCc
coagulation (in descending order). The strength factors and recov-
ery factors of ocs by PASiCc coagulation were larger than those by
PASiCa and PASiCb coagulation at all pH values.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Research and Development Pro-
jects of Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Department of Peo-
ples Republic of China (No. 2010-k7-7) and the National Major
Special Technological Programmes Concerning Water Pollution
Control and Management in the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period
(No. 2012ZX07203004). The kind suggestions from anonymous
reviewers are also highly appreciated.
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