Abstract
Existing cyanobacteria thickening and dewatering processes in Taihu Lake commonly use conventional inorganic flocculants to condition the cyanobacteria, which poses certain environmental risks. In this study, three different types of typical flocculants, namely polymerized aluminum chloride (PAC), cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) and starch-based flocculant (St-CTA), were selected to investigate their flocculant effects on cyanobacteria and the mechanism of action. The analysis showed that the dosage of St-CTA was low, the flocculation efficiency was high, and it could form flocs with large particle size and high strength. The adsorption and precipitation effect of St-CTA on protein and polysaccharide in flocculated EPS was stronger than that of CPAM and PAC, and it was able to act on the protein structure of EPS favorable for flocculation, improve the hydrophilic effect of S-EPS and LB-EPS, and reduce the content of bound water in EPS from 2.08 to 1.22 g/g DS, thus improving the efficiency of algae-water separation. The free energy and energy barrier of the EPS surface in each layer of the cyanobacterial floc after flocculation by St-CTA were significantly reduced, which resulted in the tendency of the cyanobacterial particles to aggregate and thus flocculate and settle. The pilot validation of St-CTA for cyanobacteria dewatering showed that the water content of algal residue could be reduced to 93.48 %, and the removal efficiencies of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the air-floated water could be up to 27.3 %, 76.6 %, 27.4 %, and 56.4 %, respectively. In conclusion, this study provides scientific knowledge and demonstration for promoting the use of St-CTA to condition cyanobacterial thickening and dewatering, which is a new idea to solve the problem of cyanobacterial resourcefulness and safe utilization.
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