Currently testing the raw and treated samples with ICP-OES, however I am considering testing the sludge (FTIR maybe?) as well to evaluate dosing of the chemical whether its at optimum or I'm overdosing/under dosing it. My theory is if that the sludge consist of mostly heavy metals and less coagulant/flocculant it means that the dosing was a success? Grateful for your answers! Thanks in advance.
Hi.
Assuming HM means heavy metals, and that you know exactly which ones you are targeting, maybe you can determine the dried sludge loss at 550 Celsius. Assuming that all that's left are the metal oxides after this process, you can make a rough estimate of the sludge composition. An alternative (actually similar) is to base your estimation on TOC determination.
That being said, your most accurate choice is to determine the efficiency of the process as function of the amount of coagulant/flocculant by determining the amount of metals removed using ICP or AAS. You can do it either based on the difference in concentrations between affluent-effluent, or by quantifying the metals in the sludges after proper digestion.
Cheers!
If your aim is only to determine the efficacy of coagulation/flocculation, it would suffice to measure the concentrations of your target heavy metals in solution before and after treatment. This is a simple and direct way for your investigation. Analyzing heavy metals in sludge will involve a lot more hassle. Is it your purpose to study sludge characteristics, perhaps from the view point of its disposal/reuse?
I agree with the reply of Mohamed Hasnain Isa
Keep focusing on water treatment.
If your interests are on sludge treatment, do not confuse it with water quality and treatment efficiency.
Best wishes,
Djamel
Thanks for the answers! Hi, Mohamed Hasnain Isa , Mário Silva , Djamel Ghernaout .
My concern is that I can't control/predict the incoming concentrations of heavy metal, hence I am worry that the coagulation/flocculation process maybe underdose/overdosed at times leading to environmental violations. It would also be a waste of chemicals to be overdosing chemicals.
So are there any suggestions on how I should optimize my coagulation/flocculatio process? ICP-OES is done by an outside lab hence, by the time I receive the results it's already way too late. Would appreciate reading materials recommendation too!
Cheers!!
It is depend on what HM you are dealing with. Some HM could be measured colorimetric and you can get the result almost immediately. The common problems for the technique are detection limit and cost (for chemical reagents).
Just for example, Fe(II) could be measure colorimetrically with o-phenanthroline and if you add ascorbic acid (reducing agent), you will get total Fe (Fe(II) + Fe(III)).
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