Abstract
Bioflocculants mediate the removal of suspended particles from solution and the efficiency of flocculation is dependent on the characteristics of the flocculant. Apart from the merits of biodegradability and harmlessness, bioflocculants could be viable as industrially relevant flocculants as they are a renewable resource. Additionally, the shortcomings associated with the conventionally used flocculants such as aluminium salts and acrylamide polymers, which include dementia and cancer, highlight more the need to use bioflocculants as an alternative. Consequently, in this study a marine sediment bacterial isolate was screened for bioflocculant production. Basic local alignment search tools (BLAST) analysis of 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) sequence of the bacterial isolate showed 98% similarity to Bacillus thuringiensis MR-R1. The bacteria produced bioflocculant optimally with inoculum size (4% v/v) (85%), glucose (85.65%) and mixed nitrogen source (urea, ammonium chloride and yeast extract) (75.9%) and the divalent cation (Ca2+) (62.3%). Under optimal conditions, a maximum flocculating activity of over 85% was attained after 60 h of cultivation. The purified polysaccharide-bioflocculant flocculated optimally at alkaline pH 12 (81%), in the presence of Mn2+ (73%) and Ca2+ (72.8%). The high flocculation activity shown indicates that the bioflocculant may contend favourably as an alternative to the conventionally used flocculants in water treatment.
Highlights
Flocculation is a process whereby suspended particles are agglomerated into larger floc.Flocculation processes have applications in pharmaceutical, dredging, dairy, fermentation, and other downstream processes [1]
Sediment samples were collected from Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and processed according to the description of Jensen et al [26] with some modifications
Cape of Province, South Africa that were screened for bioflocculant production by investigating their
Summary
Flocculation is a process whereby suspended particles are agglomerated into larger floc.Flocculation processes have applications in pharmaceutical, dredging, dairy, fermentation, and other downstream processes [1]. Flocculation is a process whereby suspended particles are agglomerated into larger floc. Inorganic and organic synthetic flocculants include aluminium sulphate, polyaluminum chloride, and derivatives of acrylamide and imine polymers which have dominated and, continue to dominate as flocculation mediators in the flocculation stage of water treatment processes [2,3,4]. These flocculating agents are noted as cost-effective and they mediate flocculation with high efficiency their dominance as the conventionally used flocculants.
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