Influence of surfactants on flocculation and dewatering of kaolin suspensions by cationic polyacrylamide (PAM-C) flocculant

Abstract

This paper reports the result of studies on flocculation and dewatering of kaolin suspensions by cationic polyacrylamide (PAM-C) flocculants in presence of surfactants. The surfactants used were namely anionic sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), cationic cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and non-ionic TritonX 100, which is a polyoxyethylenic ether compound. The unflocculated kaolin has a very slow settling rate of about 0.03 cm/s and can be improved by more than ten times using PAM-C as a flocculating agent. PAM-C adsorbs on kaolin primarily through electrostatic attraction and the flocculation is governed mainly by charge neutralisation and bridging. Partial pre-coating of kaolin with all three surfactants leads to both physical adsorption as well as chemisorption at PAM-C. Pretreating the kaolin with surfactants can further increase or decrease settling rate depending on the type of surfactant used. However, the flocs thus formed shows better filtration and dewatering behaviour estimated in terms of reduction in specific resistance to filtration (SRF) and cake moisture. The minimum SRF occurs under conditions corresponding to far lower adsorption of PAM-C than that for best flocculation. Simultaneous addition of PAM-C and each of the three surfactants decreases settling rate and sediment volume markedly and does not reduce SRF any further but they all reduce cake moisture substantially. The reduction in cake moisture for different PAM-C: surfactant mixture is in the following order: PAM-C: SDS (1:1)>PAM-C: TX 100(1:1)>PAM-C: CTAB(1:1). Low cake moisture in comparison with PAM-C alone, may be a result of reduction in entrapment of excess water in the smaller flocs formed by simultaneous addition with surfactants and to some extent due to hydrophobicity caused by adsorption of surfactants.