Coagulation performance of a novel poly-ferric-acetate (PFC) coagulant in phosphate-kaolin synthetic water treatment

Abstract

The process of coagulation-flocculation is increasingly applied in wastewater treatment. And the polymerized inorganic coagulants are widely used among these coagulation-flocculation processes. However, conventional coagulants using sulfates or chlorides as counter anion may give rise to corrosion. The purpose of this study was to synthesize PFC coagulants in which acetate is used as counter anion. The influences on the preparation of PFC were optimized. The synthesis was done at the optimum conditions, such as temperature of 60 °C, the Fe/CH3COOH molar ratio of 1 : 4.0 and reaction time of 6 h, respectively. The prepared PFC coagulants were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). PFC was found to mainly form complexation polymeric species and present more cluster and lamellar structure. A series of jar tests were carried out to study the coagulation performance of PFC and PFS in phosphate-kaolin synthetic water treatment. Results showed that the coagulation performance of PFC was more efficient than PFS’s in terms of the phosphorus removal efficiency and the residual turbidity. Due to using acetate as counter anion to iron, PFC is less harmful to the processes of water treatment and equipment than that of the conventional coagulants applied chlorides or sulfates. Therefore, PFC is a promising coagulant in the process of corrosion sensitive applications and the process of wastewater containing phosphorus treatment.