Ultrasound-chitosan enhanced flocculation of low algal turbid waters

• Ultrasound enhanced coagulation/flocculation of low algal turbid waters was studied.
• Simultaneous effect of chitosan and ultrasound on turbidity removal was studied.
• A comparison with conventional rapid mixing/flocculation process was conducted.
• Ultrasound mixing may be performed in lieu of rapid mixing for coagulation process.
• Ultrasound power density, flocculation time, pH–chemical–dosage effects were studied.

In this study, we evaluated the effect of ultrasound-chitosan enhanced flocculation process for efficient removal of algal cells from low algal turbid waters comparing with the conventional rapid mix process. The results show that the turbidity removal efficiencies for ultrasound-enhanced coagulation (97.8–99% removal) were comparable to the conventional rapid mix coagulation (96.8–99% removal) for alum and for chitosan (84.1–90.5% for RM and 84–97% for US). This study confers that ultrasound mixing can be performed instead of conventional rapid mixing to improve the algal cell removal efficacies from the low algal turbid waters.

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