Research On Modified Natural Polymeric Cationic Flocculants

The estimated annual aggregate demand of the water purification reagent used in water supply and waste water treatment in our country is about 15~18 million tons and the total annual output is about 2~3 billion yuan after the 2010. While the present annual production of flocculants in our country is only about 6~8 million tons. Most of them are coarse varieties which can not meet the needs of water treatment in live and industry. We could predict that there is a wide market demand of water supply for in cities and towns as well as the urban sewage and industrial sewage reuse, which are increasing rapidly in the following years. Therefore, some newly-developed, high-efficient water purification reagent will bring up a pillar industrial development both in the technological investigations and in the environmental protection applications. This study is based on the above considerations to follow the steps of the national and international development tendency.This study introduces a mothed to prepare a natural organic polymeric modified cation flocculant. It was made from corncob powder (p =74 um ) as raw materials, and OMTMA (oxiranylmethyl-trimethyl-ammonium, made from trimethylamine and epichlorohydrin) as cationic etherizing reagent. The optimum reactions were established through orthorhombic experiments (the corncob powder of 4 g ) : Firstly, corncob powder was alkalified at 50℃ for 30 minutes. Then it was etherified at 40℃ for 2 h using 20 ml OMTMA. Because the micro-scale particle leads to surface area increase and effective activity, the reaction steps was reduced by removing the use of initiating fenton reagent.Two kinds of systems including kaolin and kieselguhr were used to evaluate the efficiency of the flocculation. Comparing with the inorganic flocculant (Aluminum chloride hexahydrate ) and the organic flocculant (polyacrylamide ), we investigated the parameters including dosage, pH application scope, system pH shift, temperature, flocculating speed as well as the size and shape of woolly masses, respectively.Consequently, we acquired the optimized conditions of preparation and applications.Compared with some traditional market flocculant, this product has it own merit, as it disperses in water in mini-partical state. If the sediment was formed, it agglutinates together with the deposit, therefore it leaves no remains in the water and keep the environmerntal safty.Application of the flocculant to the treatment of natural ground water, urban sanitary sewage and industrial sewage, it shows great efficency, particularly for the treatment of highly turbided water caused by inorganic pollutant.After market investigations and cost accounting, we present the application prospect of this product. If it were put into use in wide scale, a considerable economical and social benefit would be acquired.