I am trying to dry an aqueous solution and hard cake forms. According to theory, the cake is softer for the flocculated suspensions, so I am trying to choose a flocculant agent. What are the characteristics I need to search for? How to choose the proper agent?
Thank you!
I have understood, that you want to condition a kind of filter cake to improve the dewatering? In that case use a cationic polyacrylamide. (in case you use PAM powder the aqueous solution is dead after 8 h).
kind regards
Now assuming that you are dealing with particulate, dispersed matter in a liquid medium you need 1) to screen off, or reverse, the unit particles' repulsive forces to create aggregates and 2) bring these closer together forming larger flocs that facilities dewatering. The first (optional) step can be done by utilization of a coagulant and the second step (required) adding a suitable flocculant. Your choice will depend on the type of dispersed system in question. A large range of coagulants (inorganic and organic) and matching flocculants (e.g. polyacrylamides PAMs, cat- or anionic grades) with different molar weights and charge levels can be found for different systems. More knowledge of your system and equipment will be needed for choosing a suitable approach.
BR/Tom
Basically the term flocculant is somehow misleading in case of conditioning.
For real flocculation anionic PAM is used and then it is an auxiliary flocculant.
regards Ruediger
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physical Sciences
- Materials Science