• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.254-269
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• 2004

Polysilicato-iron coagulant (PSI) is receiving attention in Japan as a substitute for aluminum-based coagulants. In the first part of this article, coagulation, sedimentation and filtration experiments were carried out using kaolin clay particles as the turbidizing material and four types of PSI with various molar ratios of polysilicic acid to ferric chloride (Si/Fe ratio). Results demonstrate that use of a PSI with a high Si/Fe ratio can cause a more dramatic decrease in treated water turbidity but a higher suction time ratio (STR) than when PACl is used. However, optimization by increasing the rapid agitation strength GR is found to greatly improve the STR. In addition, the series of filtration experiments verified that optimization of GR is greatly effective in controlling rapid increases in filter head loss, and also formation of a thin aging layer in the upper part of the filter bed by slow-start filtration is effective in improving filtered water turbidity over the entire filtration process. The second part of this article describes two innovative filtration techniques to increase the particle separation efficiency; (1) coagulant-coated filter medium by enhancing the electrical potential of the surface of the filter medium, and (2) coagulant dosing in influent by controlling the electrical potential of particles entering the filter layer. From the results of the various filtration experiments using a pilot plant, these two techniques were found to be very effective to reduce the effluent water turbidity from the start to the end of a filter run. Moreover, in the filtration experiments using these two methods simultaneously, higher removal efficiency of approximately 3-log (99.7%) was realized, resulting that the finished water turbidity was accordingly reduced to 0.004mg/L.