Effects of Surfactant Addition on Dewatering of Alum Sludges
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 128, Issue 12
Abstract
In Taiwan, surfactants are frequently used in the flotation process to aid in solid/liquid separation. Their effect on the dewatering of alum sludge was investigated. Various amounts of cationic and anionic surfactants were added to sludge samples, and the dewatering characteristics of the sludge and the water content of sludge cakes were evaluated. Both surfactants improved the dewatering of the sludge by lowering the specific resistance to filtration, decreasing the bound water content, and increasing the dewatering rate of the sludge. Different combinations of anionic and cationic surfactants and polyelectrolytes were also experimented on to study the effect of surfactant addition on the dewatering characteristics of polyelectrolyte-conditioned sludge. Experimental results indicated that both cationic and anionic surfactants adversely affected the dewatering of the conditioned sludge. The addition of surfactant to the oppositely charged polyelectrolyte proved to be most detrimental to sludge dewatering due to the precipitation between surfactant and polyelectrolyte. The addition of cationic surfactant to the cationic polyelectrolyte-conditioned sludge had the least effect.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 128 • Issue 12 • December 2002
Pages: 1121 - 1127
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 2, 2000
Accepted: Jun 25, 2001
Published online: Nov 15, 2002
Published in print: Dec 2002
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