Flocculation series

The design of the sludge-blanket clarifiers used primarily in the water industry is based on the jar test and a simple measurement of the blanket expansion and settling rate (12). Different versions of the jar test exist, but essentially it consists of a bank of stirred beakers used as a series flocculator to optimize the flocculant addition that produces the maximum floc-setfling rate. Visual floc-size evaluation is usually included. 

It should be noted that the total loss of head of a filter bed is in inverse ratio to the depth of penetration of the matter in suspension. In a normal wastewater treatment plant, the water is brought onto a series of rapid sand filters and the impurities are removed by coagulation-flocculation-filtration. Backwashing is typically performed in the counterfiow mode, using air and water. One type of common filter is illustrated in Figure 6, consisting of closed horizontal pressurized filters. 

In a series of experiments on the flow of flocculated kaolin suspensions in laboratory and industrial scale pipelines(26-27-2Sl, measurements of pressure drop were made as a function of flowrate. Results were obtained using a laboratory capillary-tube viscometer, and pipelines of 42 mm and 205 mm diameter arranged in a recirculating loop. The rheology of all of the suspensions was described by the power-law model with a power law index less than unity, that is they were all shear-thinning. The behaviour in the laminar region can be described by the equation ... 

David, A., Asphaltenes Flocculation During Solvent Simulation of Heavy Oils. American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Symposium Series 1973, 2 (no. 127), 56-8. 

Ives, K.J. in "Scientific Basis of Flocculation", Ives, K.J., Ed. Nato Advanced Study Institutes Series, Sijthoff and Noordhoff, Alphen aan den Rijn, 1978, pp.37 and 165. 

The method described here provides a convenient means of determining the specific filtration resistance of fairly dilute suspensions. Results for clay suspensions flocculated by cationic polymers show that the specific resistance gives a sensitive indication of flocculation and is a useful guide in the selection of optimum flocculant concentrations. In a series of trials not reported here, it has been shown that the specific resistance results are very well matched by re-filtration rate data, as expected. The results also agree well with other, unrelated techniques. For more concentrated suspensions, some discrepancies have been found between permeability methods and other measures of flocculation (4). 

The complexity of the mixtures made it impossible to define the chemical composition so the commercial preparations were divided into four groups (Table 8.2) on the basis of a series of sophisticated chemical assay procedures. Caramel colorants must be compatible with the food products in which they are used, which usually means the absence of flocculation and precipitation in the food. These undesirable effects result from charged macromolecular components of caramel which react with the food. Hence the net ionic charge of the caramel macromolecules at the pH of the intended food product is the prime determinant of compatibility. Caramel colorants are used in a variety of foods (Table 8.2) but over 80% of the caramel produced in the US is used to color soft drinks particularly colas and root beers. 

R.O. Keys and R. Hogg, Mixing Problems in Polymer Flocculation in Water - 1978, G.F. Bennett (ed.), AIChE Symposium Series, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, 1979, Vol. 75, pp. 63-72. 

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