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The identification of microorganisms with excellent flocculants-producing capability and optimization of the fermentation process are necessary for the wide-scale application of bioflocculants. Therefore, we isolated and identified a highly efficient flocculation performance strain of Stenotrophomonas pavanii GXUN74707 from the sludge. The optimal fermentation and flocculation conditions of strain S. pavanii GXUN74707 was in fermentation medium with glucose and urea as the carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, at pH 7.0 for 36 h, which treatment of kaolin suspension with 0.5 mL of the fermentation broth resulted in a flocculation rate of 99.0%. The bioflocculant synthesized by strain S. pavanii GXUN74707 was found mainly in the supernatant of the fermentation broth. Chemical analysis revealed that the pure bioflocculant consisted of 79.70% carbohydrates and 14.38% proteins. The monosaccharide components of MBF-GXUN74707 are mainly mannose (5.96 µg/mg), galactose (1.86 µg/mg), and glucose (1.73 µg/mg). Infrared spectrometric analysis showed the presence of carboxyl (COO-), hydroxyl (-OH) groups. The SEM images showed clumps of rod-shaped bacteria with adhesion of extracellular products. Furthermore, the strain decolored dye wastewater containing direct black, direct blue, and Congo red by 89.2%, 95.1%, 94.1%, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) removal rates after treatment of aquaculture wastewater with the fermentation broth were 68% and 23%, respectively. This study is the first to report the performance and application of strain Stenotrophomonas pavanii in wastewater flocculation. The results indicate that strain S. pavanii is a good candidate for the production novel bioflocculants and demonstrates its potential industrial practicality in biotechnology processes.

RESUMEN

A kind of starch-based flocculant (starch-graft-poly[(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride], denoted St-g-PDMC-LPUV) has been synthesized by low-pressure ultraviolet initiation and was employed to remove humic acid (HA) for water purification. The physicochemical characteristics of starch and St-g-PDMC-LPUV were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, XRD, TGA, SEM and BET to confirmed the successful grafting DMC onto starch. Effects of flocculant dosage, pH, the adding amount of Fe3O4, initial HA concentration and stirring speed were investigated systematically. The prepared St-g-PDMC-LPUV flocculant with non-toxic, biodegradability and environmental friendliness exhibited effective performance for removing HA from water in a wide pH range (5-10). The flocculation mechanism was attributed to the effective collision between function groups of the St-g-PDMC-LPUV flocculant and HA by charge neutralization, adsorption, bridging and patching.

RESUMEN

The fine molecular structure of a flocculant fundamentally determines the internal flocculation mechanism and the final application property. In this work, three series of chitosan-based polymers (CTS-g-PAMD) with divergent charge densities and graft chain distribution were synthesized by graft copolymerization using acrylamide (AM) and acryloyloxyethyltrimethylammonium chloride (DAC). Meanwhile, flocculant with linear chain structure (CTS-CTA) was prepared by etherification using 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTA). The characterization results confirmed that various monomers had been successfully introduced into chitosan. The reaction basically happened on -NH2 at C2 of chitosan, and the ring structure of chitosan was destroyed by free radical reaction. The obtained flocculants were used to flocculate bentonite and humic acid solution. Besides dose, the effects of chain structure, charge density and chain distribution on flocculation performance were systematically studied. Based on the fractal theory and flocculation kinetics, the effects of structural factors on floc characteristics were also investigated. The results showed that, flocculant with abundant graft chains exerts better flocculation performance and floc characteristic due to enhanced adsorption electrical neutralization and adsorption bridging effect. The effects of charge density and chain distribution on the flocculation performance were disparate in the range of insufficient and excessive doses. Furthermore, on the basis of the quadratic polynomial model, quantitative structure-effect relationships were established, which has guiding significance for the development and utilization of flocculants.

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In this work, four alkaline lignin (AL) based flocculants with distinct molecular weight, chain architectures and charge densities (denoted as AL-g-DMC1, AL-g-DMC2, AL-GTA1 and AL-GTA2) were prepared from paper mill sludge, which were designed via graft copolymerization of dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride (DMC) or etherification of 2, 3-epoxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (GTA). The characteristics of the aforementioned flocculants were evaluated by a series of analysis technologies, which essentially confirmed the successful introduction of quaternary ammonium groups onto the AL. The flocculation performances of the four synthesized lignin-based polymers as the coagulant aids for PAC were investigated in disperse dye (DY) wastewater treatment, and the effects of dosages, initial pH, coexisting ions, humic acid (HA) or kaolin particles were also studied. The results indicated that branched copolymers with high molecular weight like AL-g-DMC1 and AL-g-DMC2 exerted excellent color removals and satisfactory floc properties in comparison with linear polymers with low molecular weight (AL-GTA1 and AL-GTA2). Furthermore, AL-g-DMC1 and AL-g-DMC2 exhibited remarkable tolerance on pH alteration and coexisting ions owing to their strong bridging action.

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Chitosan (CS)-g-polyacrylamide (PAM) is a highly efficient and environmentally friendly flocculant, which was synthesized through plasma-induced graft copolymerization of CS and acrylamide (AM). The effects of monomer concentration, AM:CS ratio, discharge power, discharge time, post-polymerization temperature, and post-polymerization time on the intrinsic viscosity, grafting ratio, and grafting efficiency of CS-g-PAM were investigated. The optimum conditions of graft copolymerization were as follows: 20% monomer concentration, 7:3 AM:CS ratio, 40 W discharge power, 90 s discharge time, 50°C post-polymerization temperature, and 24 h post-polymerization time. The structural characteristics of CS-g-PAM were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. CS-g-PAM exhibited better flocculation efficiency than the commercially available PAM in both diatomite-simulated wastewater and low-turbidity algal water. The optimal turbidity removal efficiency for the diatomite-simulated wastewater was 99.9%, which was obtained with 6 mg L-1 of CS-g-PAM at pH 11.0 and 250 s-1 of velocity gradient. In low-turbidity algal water, the optimal removal efficiencies for chlorophyll-a, turbidity, and COD were 93.6%, 94.5%, and 98.2%, respectively.

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China is the world's largest producer of wigs, and the manufacturing generates large quantities of hairwork effluents. Coagulation/flocculation is an important step in the water treatment process. In this study, two versions of starch-based flocculants were successfully prepared through etherification and graft copolymerization, respectively. Starch-3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl triethyl ammonium chloride (St-CTA-DQ) and starch-graft-poly[(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride] (St-g-PDMC-DQ) both contain strongly cationic quaternary ammonium salt groups, but have differing cationic contents, specifically, the degree of substitution (DS) and grafting ratio (G). Furthermore, the additional functional groups were distributed on different chain sites (the starch backbone for St-CTA-DQ, and the branch chains for St-g-PDMC-DQ). These two flocculants demonstrated superior efficiency for turbidity and UV254 removal in hairwork wastewater as well as better floc properties compared to polyaluminum chloride. The effects of pH, flocculant dose, and cationic group contents (DS and G) were systematically investigated. Consequently, it was determined that a higher cationic content in both the flocculants led to better flocculation performance as well as increased removal rates of both turbidity and UV254. This was primarily due to improved charge neutralization, which highlighted the preference towards a lower optimal dose. In addition, flocculation performance worsened as the pH level increased. Overall, St-g-PDMC-DQ exhibited similar flocculation performance to St-CTA-DQ. However, the wastewater treated by St-g-PDMC-DQ showed lower residual turbidity than when treated by St-CTA-DQ. This was attributed to the distinct branch chain architecture of St-g-PDMC-DQ, which was beneficial for coagulating the uneasily flocculated contaminants in water, such as smaller-sized colloids and water-soluble organic substances. Flocculant structural factors, specifically charge properties and chain architecture, heavily affected the final flocculation performance.

RESUMEN

The molecular structure of a material substantially determines its final application performance. In this work, a series of starch-based flocculants with different charge densities and average graft chain lengths were prepared by the co-graft polymerization of acrylamide and [(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride] (St-g-PAM-co-PDMC). The flocculation performance of St-g-PAM-co-PDMC was studied systematically at neutral pH using kaolin suspension and sodium humate (NaHA) aqueous solution as synthetic wastewaters. The effects of the two structural factors on the flocculation efficiency of the starch-based flocculants have been investigated. The experimental results showed that the charge density and average graft chain length contributed distinctly to flocculation performance during the removal of both kaolin particles and NaHA under insufficient and excessive flocculant dose conditions. The flocculation mechanisms of this starch-based flocculant were discussed in detail on the basis of the structure-activity relationship, which are significant to optimize the flocculation conditions and guide the development of novel high-performance flocculants.

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In this study, a series of cationized starch-based flocculants (starch-3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl triethyl ammonium chloride, St-CTA) containing various quaternary ammonium salt groups on the starch backbone were prepared using a simple etherification reaction. All of the prepared starch-based flocculants show effective performance for the flocculation of kaolin suspension, two bacterial (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) suspensions, and two contaminant mixtures (kaolin and each bacterium) under most pH conditions. St-CTA with a high substitution degree of CTA demonstrates improved contaminant removal efficiency because of the strong cationic nature of the grafted quaternary ammonium salt groups and the charge naturalization flocculation effect. The antibacterial effects of St-CTA were also evaluated, considering that many quaternary ammonium salt compounds elicit bactericidal effects. Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix spectra and direct cell morphological observation under scanning electron microscopy reveal that the starch-based flocculants exhibit better antibacterial effects on the Gram-negative bacterium E. coli than on the Gram-positive bacterium S. aureus. The thicker cell wall due to the presence of abundant peptidoglycan and teichoic acids of S. aureus than E. coli explains the uneasy breakage of S. aureus cell wall after being attacked by the cationized starch-based flocculants.

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In this work, a series of quaternary ammonium salt grafted starch flocculant, starch-graft-poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride (St-g-PDMC), with different grafting ratios was prepared by a simple method. Various characterization techniques were employed to investigate the structure and charge property of the starch-based flocculants. The efficiencies of St-g-PDMC for flocculation of kaolin and Escherichia coli suspensions as well as their mixtures were systematically examined in laboratory scale. In addition to environmental factors, such as flocculant dose and pH, the effects of grafting ratio were also evaluated. Results indicated that St-g-PDMCs exhibited dual functionality of high flocculation effects and antibacterial properties. Moreover, the flocculation and antibacterial mechanisms were investigated in detail based on apparent flocculation performance, charge properties, floc structures (floc size and its two-dimensional fractal dimension), and cell surface morphology, respectively.

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Three different starch-based flocculants with various chain architectures and charge properties have been prepared through etherification, graft copolymerization, or their combination. Two of the flocculants (starch-graft-poly[(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride] and starch-3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl triethyl ammonium chloride, denoted as STC-g-PDMC and STC-CTA respectively) are cationic, and another one (carboxymethyl starch-graft-poly[(2-methacryloyloxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride], denoted as CMS-g-PDMC) is amphoteric. Those three flocculants have shown far different flocculation efficiency and floc properties for the removal of humic acid (HA) from water due to their distinct structural features. The effects of pH, flocculant dose, and initial HA concentration have been studied systematically. Accordingly, STC-g-PDMC and CMS-g-PDMC with strongly cationic branch chains have much better flocculation performance than polyaluminum chloride (PAC) and STC-CTA, the latter of which features linear chain architecture and strongly cationic pieces lying on its chain backbone. It indicates that the architecture of cationic branch chains plays an important role in HA flocculation due to their significantly enhanced bridging effects. Moreover, STC-g-PDMC has higher HA removal efficiency and better floc properties than CMS-g-PDMC, suggesting that charge neutralization effects make notable contributions to HA removal and that the additional anionic pieces on CMS-g-PDMC can weaken its flocculation performance. In addition, STC-g-PDMC used as coagulant aid for PAC has also been tried, which observably reduces the optimal dose of the inorganic coagulant.

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