Abstract
AbstractIn this study, the characteristics of a bioflocculant produced by using activated sludge as raw materials were investigated. The performance of this bioflocculant in the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solution and the corresponding mechanisms were determined as well. After cultivating a bioflocculant-producing strain in an alkaline thermal pre-treatment sludge for 60 h, approximately 4.45 g of bioflocculant containing a protein backbone was harvested from 1 L of fermentation broth. This bioflocculant can remove 98.5% of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions under optimal conditions, which include a bioflocculant dosage of 6 mg/L and a CaCl2 concentration of 70 mg/L at a pH of 6.5.
Highlights
As economies develop, more and more heavy metalcontaining wastewater is generated, and the release of these heavy metals cause serious environmental pollution and threaten human health [1]
Bioflocculants, both active secreted by microorganisms and released upon cell lysis, are a kind of environmentally-friendly material with the advantages of non-toxicity and biodegradability, and they have been recognized as an alternative to the use of chemical flocculants in wastewater treatment [12]
A single sample of sludge was used to produce the input for bioflocculant production by a single strain, various pre-treatments of the sludge led to distinct bioflocculant yields
Summary
More and more heavy metalcontaining wastewater is generated, and the release of these heavy metals cause serious environmental pollution and threaten human health [1]. Widely used chemical flocculants have been shown to cause health problems and secondary environmental pollution [10,11], which greatly restrict the wide applications of these flocculants. These limitations have become especially important in light of increasingly stringent drainage rules that have gradually emerged. Bioflocculants, both active secreted by microorganisms and released upon cell lysis, are a kind of environmentally-friendly material with the advantages of non-toxicity and biodegradability, and they have been recognized as an alternative to the use of chemical flocculants in wastewater treatment [12]. Because of all of these factors, in recent years, the use of bioflocculants has been considered to be a potential solution to environmental pollution [13]
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