The impacts of coagulant aid-polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride on coagulation performances and floc characteristics in humic acid–kaolin synthetic water treatment with titanium tetrachloride

Coagulation of humic acid–kaolin synthetic water was conducted with Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and/or polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride (PD) to assess the effect of coagulant aid PD on coagulation behavior and floc characteristics. Coagulation behavior was investigated in terms of the reduction of turbidity and the removal of natural organic matter (NOM). The results show that the humic acid (HA) removal increased with the addition of PD depending on the doses of it and TiCl4, and the HA removal was more enhanced by PD at low TiCl4 doses than at higher ones. In addition, PD–TiCl4 (PD dosed firstly, followed by TiCl4 addition) gave better turbidity and HA removal than TiCl4–PD (TiCl4 dosed firstly, followed by PD addition) in this investigation. The growth, breakage, regrowth and fractal nature of flocs was investigated by use of Mastersizer 2000. TiCl4 plus cationic polymer PD exhibited an apparent improvement on floc size and floc grow rate, and they were both in the following order: PD–TiCl4 > TiCl4–PD > TiCl4. Compared with TiCl4, the dual-coagulants significantly improved the floc recoverability. Besides, the dual-coagulants gave more compact floc structure than TiCl4 coagulant at each coagulant dose under investigation and the values of fractal dimension (Df) were in the order of TiCl4–PD > PD–TiCl4 > TiCl4.

► HA removal was enhanced by PD, PD–TiCl4 performed better than TiCl4–PD.
► TiCl4 plus PD exhibited an apparent improvement on floc size and floc grow rate.
► The dual-coagulants significantly improved the floc recoverability.
► The dual-coagulants gave more compact floc structure than TiCl4 coagulant.