- 21 May 2024
- 5 minutes
How Flocculant Becomes the Key to our Clarification
The Flocculant, in the vast universe of wastewater and industrial sludge treatment, is a silent but vital companion. Often underestimated or ignored, this important agent plays a crucial role in separating suspended solid particles from water, an essential step in achieving cleaner water and more compact sludge.
It is a chemical agent designed to promote and speed up the aggregation of solid particles in water by acting as a web that imprisons solid particles, facilitating their sedimentation. This process, known as flocculation, is crucial in the treatment of wastewater and industrial sludge, as it greatly accelerates the settling speed of solids. Without the use of this compound, the settling of solids would be extremely slow and inefficient, leading to longer treatment times and a lower quality of the filtration process.
To fully understand the importance of the flocculant, it is useful to compare the settling speed of solids with and without the use of this compound. Without its use, solid particles in the water tend to remain in suspension for a long period of time, making the separation process slow and inefficient. In contrast, the addition of flocculant encourages the aggregation of particles, forming larger and heavier floccules or flocs that sediment more quickly, greatly reducing the overall treatment time.
Another important aspect to consider is the different types available on the market. Flocculants can be classified according to their electrical charge as anionic and cationic:
- Anionic: they are more effective in treating aggregates and mining residues.
- Cationic: are usually preferable and effective for treating granite, quartz, silica, kaolin and biological material.
However, the choice of flocculant type also depends on the type of solids present in the water to be treated and the specific conditions of the plant.
Bifloc Matec: Flocculation system with automatic dosing system
Matec Industries, a leader in wastewater and industrial sludge treatment, has developed a number of innovative solutions to optimise the flocculation process. These include the Bifloc system, an advanced flocculation bin designed to ensure optimal flocculation and greater efficiency of the entire decantation process. Thanks to its advanced technology, the Bifloc system guarantees perfect maturation of the flocculant in water so that all electrical charges of the solid particles are activated, accelerating the settling reaction and significantly reducing consumption, thus ensuring water with suspended solids below 80 ppm/mgl. In this way, the Bifloc system achieves superior results in terms of decantation speed thanks to the different tanks of which it is composed, which optimise the homogenisation of the solution, thus helping to improve the overall efficiency of the plant.
Automatic dosing system: Doson
The Doson is a photoelectric cell system engineered by Matec to control and adjust the flocculant according to the amount of solid particles suspended in the water. This system regularly takes sludge samples and analyses them in a closed cylinder using photocells to check the settling time. It then adjusts the dose of the product to be dissolved accordingly according to the settling time to optimise the consumption of this chemical agent and the treatment time of the plant.
It is an automatic component with no need for an operator and is essential when the properties of the sludge to be treated change over time, always guaranteeing an optimal dosage of the flocculant for the material being treated, managing to reduce flocculant consumption by an average of 20/30%.
The role of Flocculant in industry to optimise treatment processes
In the industrial context, flocculants play a key role in the wastewater and sludge treatment sector. Companies operating in this sector, such as Matec Industries, make extensive use of flocculants to ensure maximum efficiency of their plants. The flocculation process accelerates the settling of solids inside decanters and clarifiers, significantly reducing treatment time and improving the quality of the final effluent.
The choice of the type of flocculant to use depends on a number of factors, including the type of solids present in the sludge and water to be treated, the particle size and the environmental conditions of the plant. In addition, it is also important to consider the optimal flocculant concentration to be used to achieve the best results in terms of treatment efficiency and quality.
In addition to this compound, it is also important to mention pre-flocculants and coagulants, which act in synergy with flocculants to optimise the flocculation process. The former are usually added before the main treatment to prepare the solid particles for aggregation, while coagulants are a molecular (non-polymeric) chemical compound that destabilises colloidal systems and gives them a predetermined surface charge favouring the formation of larger and heavier floccules and are added upstream of the whole treatment process.
In conclusion, flocculant and dosing systems are an essential element in wastewater and industrial sludge treatment processes, making it possible to improve clarification processes and reduce the environmental impact of industrial activities. Thanks to the innovative solutions proposed by Matec Industries, it is possible to achieve superior results in terms of efficiency and sustainability, thus helping to preserve our planet’s water resources for future generations.