Drinking water treatment with recovered flocculant from alumina fabrication process

This paper presents the application of treated industrial waste from alumina fabrication in the field of drinking water treatment as coagulant-flocculant reagent. Experimental tests emphasized the efficiency of recovered and purified sodium aluminate for surface water treatment. Three different flocculants (sodium aluminate, classic flocculant, polyaluminum chloride – PAC) at four aluminum doses were tested. Turbidity, total organic carbon (TOC), iron, manganese and sodium indicators were monitored. Similar removal efficiencies have been calculated for turbidity (>99%), iron (>99%), manganese (~80%), aluminum (94–98%) and 58 and 47% for TOC in case of recovered sodium aluminate and PAC, respectively. The application of recovered flocculant proved its efficiency for coagulation-flocculation treatment phase, which mean that could be used instead classical flocculant without any secondary pollution effects. Recovered sodium aluminate is a good flocculant for drinking water treatment with many other applications in the field of wastewater treatment.