Hydrothermal liquid fraction of concentrated organic matter in sewage for coarse flocculant preparation: The role and regulation mechanism

Abstract

Capturing organics from wastewater is recognized as the initial step towards carbon valorization, since the direct valorization of organics in domestic wastewater is limited by the low concentration. An innovative method was proposed in our former research, which utilizes captured organics from wastewater as raw material for producing a coarse flocculant, thereafter, using the coarse flocculant to capture organics from wastewater in a cyclical manner. Hydrothermal processing (HTP) and chemical modification are jointly applied to coarse flocculant production. Besides, the hydrothermal liquid fraction of concentrated organic matter was indicated as the potential effective precursor. However, the role of hydrothermal liquid fraction as precursor for coarse flocculant and the regulatory mechanism remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the characteristics of the hydrothermal liquid fraction under different alkaline addition, temperature and time from the perspective of coarse flocculant preparation. The results demonstrated that the dissolved polymeric substances extracting through HTP and acid precipitation process exhibit a high molecular weight (reaching up to 9929 Da) and abundant functional groups (including CO, CN, OH, COC, etc.). Furthermore, the addition of NaOH, along with relatively moderate temperature and time were recommended for producing the flocculant precursor. Specifically, this study suggests a temperature of 140 °C and a duration of 30 min for the flocculant precursor producing.