Flocculation enhanced microfiltration of Escherichia coli lysate

Flocculation of the Escherichia coli lysate has been investigated. Three different types of commercially available synthetic polymers have been used as the flocculants. These polymers have different structures and charge characteristics. Two of them are 100% positively charged while the charge density of the third flocculant is pH dependent. For each type of the flocculants, several polymers with different molecular weights have been investigated. The flocculation results demonstrate that all the polymers tested can effectively flocculate the E. coli lysate. However, their flocculation efficiency is different. The polymer structure plays a very important role on the flocculation of the E. coli lysate. The effect of the molecular weight on the flocculation behavior is also observed for some flocculants. However, the effect of the charge density is not very important. The enhancement of the flocculation prior to a microfiltration of the E. coli lysate has been observed. The results clearly show that the flocculation prior to the microfiltration could greatly enhance the performance of the microfiltration process.