Factors affecting flocculation performance of synthetic polymer for turbidity control

Minyoung Kim, Seounghee Kim, Jinoh Kim, Sukwon Kang, Sangbong Lee

Department of Agricultural Engineering, National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration (RDA), Suwon, Republic of Korea.

DOI: 10.4236/jacen.2013.21003                

Abstract

A multilateral effort into managing nonpoint source pollution from agriculture has gotten much attention for many years. Particularly during the heavy rain season, run-off of turbid water from sloped farmlands, fallow ground and/or unmanaged uplands is deteriorated. Flocculant polymer, commonly used in wastewater treatment facilities, but now exploited to improve control of sediment turbidity by promoting flocculation of particles in construction site. This study used the flocculant polymer to control the discharge of agricultural nonpoint source pollution and focused on the understanding of how soil-water and polymer properties affect flocculation performance. Therefore, a series of flocculation experiments under different conditions was evaluated for better polymer clarification efficiency. Various factors such as flocculant dose, end-over-end inversion of a cylinder, and soil-water properties (pH, NaCl, organic matter) were studied. The effective flocculant dose that fulfilled fast settling rate was 10mg·L^-1. Additional findings included that 1) increasing pH decreased the settling rate of soil particle; 2) a positive relationship between the percentage of turbidity reduction and a level of salinity in Kaolin suspension was observed, and 3) organic matter in soil solution inhibited PAM adsorption onto soil particles, which caused the reduction of flocculation performance. The findings of this study revealed that flocculant polymer possess good results as a turbidity reducetion measure and couldfurther provide valuable information to make better decision on establishment of Best Management Practice for handling agricultural nonpoint source pollution.

Keywords

Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution; Flocculation; Synthetic Polymer; Turbidity Control;Soil-Water Properties

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Novotny, P.E. and Chesters, G.C. (1981) Handbook of nonpoint pollution: Sources and management. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York.
[2]	Korea Ministry of Environment (2006) Guidance manual to control nonpoint source pollution. Korea Ministry of Environment, Gwacheon.
[3]	Rhee, H., Yoon, C., Lee, S. and Choi, Y. (2012) Analysis of nonpoint source pollution runoff from urban land uses in South Korea. Environmental Engineering Research, 17, 47-56. doi:10.4491/eer.2012.17.1.047
[4]	Green, V.S. and Stott, D.E. (2001) Polyacrylamide: A review of the use, effectiveness, and cost of a soil erosion control amendment. Proceeding of the 10th International Soil Conservation Organization Meeting, West Lafayette, 24-29 May 2001, 384-389
[5]	Akers, R.J. and Werd, A. (1977) Coagulation and flocculation. Solid-Liquid Separation Technology, New York.
[6]	Rigo, L.N., Pinto, A.M., Denardin, N.D. and Schneider, I.A.H. (2002) Flocculatoin of fine fluorite particles with Corynebacterium xerosis and commercial long chain polymers. Brazilian Journal of Microbiology, 33, 331- 332. doi:10.1590/S1517-83822002000400010
[7]	Laylor, M.L., Morris, G.E., Self, P.G. and Smart, R.C. (2002) Kinetics of Adsorption of high molecular weight anionic polyacrylamide onto Kaolinite: The flocculation process. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 250, 28-36. doi:10.1006/jcis.2002.8341
[8]	Latif, M.A., Eldin, M.S. and Kady, M. F. (2005) Settling of high concentrations of clay suspended in water by nonionic polyacrylamide flocculants. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 44, 325-338.
[9]	Lu, J.H., Wu, L. and Letey, J. (2002) Effects of soil and water properties on anionic polyacrylamide sorption. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 66, 578-584. doi:10.2136/sssaj2002.0578
[10]	Nadler, A. and Letey, J. (1989) Adsorption isotherms of polyanions on soils using tritium labeled compounds. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 53, 1375-1378. doi:10.2136/sssaj1989.03615995005300050012x