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Electrokinetic Sedimentation Review
Electrokinetic Sedimentation Review
Electrokinetic Sedimentation Review
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Takanori Tanaka
Department of Environmental Science,
Faculty of Engineering,
Osaka Electro-Communication University,
Neyagawa, Japan
Email: tanaka@osakac.ac.jp
Masashi Iwata
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering,
Osaka Prefecture University,
Sakai, Japan
Email: iwata@chemeng.osakafu-u.ac.jp
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Alam, M.M., Alam, M.Z.,
Salleh, H.M., Tanaka, T., Amosa, M.K., Iwata, M. and Jami, M.S. (2016)
‘Electrokinetic sedimentation: a review’, Int. J. Environmental Technology and
Management, Vol. 19, Nos. 5/6, pp.374–391.
1 Introduction
2 Theory
The overall solid-liquid separation in sedimentation typically goes through two stages.
The first stage, known as sedimentation, is physicochemical and involves the conversion
of discrete particles in a suspension into loose sediment, can be divided into free settling
and hindered settling. The second stage, known as consolidation, is more mechanical in
nature and involves densification of the sediment structure under effective stresses.
Figure 1 shows a typical surface settling curve under gravity, which includes an initial
stage of stability followed by a period of relatively rapid settling, and finally a long
period of slow settling at a decreasing rate (Kynch, 1952; McRoberts and Nixon, 1976;
Bowden, 1988; Sills, 1998).
where ug (m/s) is the particle settling velocity due to gravity, ρs (kg/m3) the density of the
particle, ρw (kg/m3) the density of water, g (m/s2) the acceleration due to gravity, d (m)
the diameter of the particle, and μ (N.s/m2) the viscosity of water.
The sedimentation velocity of a soil suspension for hindered settling process can be
expressed as
U = β un r (2)
where uek is the particle velocity induced by electrokinetics in m/s; εw is the permittivity
of water in F/m, ζ is the zeta potential in V; μ is the viscosity of water in N.s/m2; and E is
the intensity or gradient of electric field in V/m. Equation (3) suggests that the particle
velocity is independent of the particle size for the case of thin diffuse double layers and is
proportional to the zeta potential.
If the clay suspension is dilute, the electric field is established in the water medium
and governed by the differential form of Ohm’s law: in clay-water-electrolyte systems,
the thickness of a diffuse double layer (Debye length) is in the range of 1–10 nm (Shang
et al., 1994b; Tuan et al., 2012), whereas clay particles display at least one dimension in
the colloid range, typically 0.1–1.0 μm (Güven, 1992). Therefore, the condition of a ‘thin
double layer’,
ka >> 1 (4)
applies where a is the equivalent radius of particles and 1/k is the Debye length. For the
case of clays, a can be taken as the diameter of clay particles.
If the particle suspension is dilute, the electric field is established in the water
medium and governed by the Ohm’s law:
j
E= (5)
σ
380 M.M. Alam et al.
where σ is the electric conductivity of water solution in S/m; and j is the current density
in A/m2. Substituting equation (5) into equation (3), we obtain
εw ζ
uek = j (6)
μσ
where k is the Kozeny constant; ε and S0, respectively the porosity and specific surface of
the material; μ, the viscosity of the liquid; εe, the volumetric charge density of the liquid;
and pL, the liquid pressure. x and E in equation (9) are the spatial coordinate and the
Electrokinetic sedimentation 381
electric field strength in the direction of material thickness, respectively. Equation (9) can
be re-written as (Jami and Iwata, 2008a):
1 ⎛ σ s iρE ∂pL ⎞
q= ⎜ − ⎟ (10)
μα ρs ⎝ ε ∂ω ⎠
where σs is the effective charge on solid surface per unit volume of solids, ω denotes the
net solid volume per unit cross-sectional area extending from the bottom of the
sedimentation column up to an arbitrary position in the material and α is the specific
hydrodynamic resistance defined by
kS02 (1 − ε )
α= (11)
ρs ε 3
+ B [1 − exp(−ηθ ) ]
where H1, H and H∞ are the initial, instantaneous and final height of the sediment,
respectively B is the ratio of the creep deformation to the total deformation, Ce is the
modified consolidation coefficient and θ is time.
φ(1 − φ) ( ρ p − ρ0 )
EESD = μg (13)
(1 + φ 2 ) K ∞
where ρp is the particle density, ρ0 is the liquid density, K is the electrolyte solution
conductivity, μ is the electrophoretic mobility, g is the gravitational acceleration, φ is the
particle volume fraction throughout the entire dispersion (Figure 3) (Kuwabara, 1959):
( b)
3
φ= a (14)
b⎡ ⎧ 2 ⎛ r ⎞ 3 3 ⎛ r ⎞5 ⎫ ⎤
2 3
a2 ⎛r⎞ ⎛r⎞
μ=
9 ∫a
⎢1 − 3 ⎜ ⎟ + 2 ⎜ ⎟ − φ ⎨ − ⎜ ⎟ + ⎜ ⎟ ⎬⎥G (r )dr
⎢⎣ ⎝a⎠ ⎝a⎠ ⎩ 5 ⎝ a ⎠ 5 ⎝ a ⎠ ⎭⎥⎦
(16)
2a 2 ρel(0) (b)Y (b) ⎛ 1 9 φ⎞
− ⎜1 + φ − 5φ2/3 − 5 ⎟
9ηb ⎝ ⎠
where ρel(0) (b) is the excess charge on the outer cell surface.
N
e dy
G (r ) = −
ηr dr ∑z n
i =1
2 ∞
i i exp ( − zi y ) φi (17)
eψ (0)
where y = was assumed that the electrolyte be composed of N ionic mobile species
kT
of valence zi and drag coefficient λi(i = 1,2,…,N), and ni∞ be the concentration (number
density) of the ith ionic species in the electro neutral solution.
Average electric current density in the suspension
〈i〉 = K ∞ ( 〈 E 〉 − ESED ) (18)
For the sedimentation current iSED, applied electric field will be zero, thus the
sedimentation current was written as:
iSED = 〈i〉 〈 E 〉 = 0 = − K ∞ ESED (19)
due to the electroosmotic water flow from the anode towards the cathode reinforcing the
migration of the H+ ions but retarding OH− ions (Hamed et al., 1991; Li et al., 1998;
Reddy and Chinthamreddy, 1999). The application of an electric field to suspensions
induces electrochemical reactions, including changes of water pH due to the hydrolysis of
water, which in turn promotes corrosion at metallic anodes and generation of oxygen and
hydrogen gases (Tuan et al., 2012). The effect should be carefully investigated due to
possible release of contaminants to water with pH changes (Buckland et al., 2000). The
electrical potential difference rose in the cathode region due to the reactions of acid/base
fronts within the first few hours, which remained rather constant throughout the rest of
the test depending on the variation of pH (Acar and Alshawabkeh, 1996; Lee, 2007).
The most important factors affecting the rate and mode of settling of particles in aqueous
solutions are:
1 the nature of particles: size distribution, shape, specific gravity, mineralogical, and
chemical properties, etc.
2 solid concentration
settling rate were almost the same for the first few hours, and thereafter the electrically
induced settling rate became significantly faster compared to that under gravity. It seems
that the effects of electrophoretic are insufficient during the free settling stage, and the
electrophoretic particle movement becomes effective from the hindered settling stage
where the particles get closer. Remarkable enhancement in settling velocities with the
increase of electric field strength may suggest possible industrial application of
electroforced sedimentation (Shirato et al., 1979). In another study the suitability of
electrokinetic remediation for removing heavy metals from dredged marine sediments
with high acid buffering capacity was investigated (Masi et al., 2016). The experimental
study revealed that the electrokinetic remediation was affected both by the intensity of
the applied electric field and the type of conditioning agent used at the electrode
compartments.
indicated that polyelectrolyte characteristics and dose had major effect only on
pressure-driven filtration of the sludge but did not have any significant effect on the
electroosmotic transport of water (Saveyn et al., 2005).
4 Future trends
5 Conclusions
This work presented a brief review of both theoretical and experimental studies on
electrokinetic sedimentation. The mechanism of electrokinetic sedimentation is
essentially a kind of particle movements in a suspension induced by the application of
electric field; that is, a solid compressive pressure increases in the material, resulting in a
decrease in the void volume of the material. This review shows that, compared to
gravitational sedimentation techniques, electrokinetic sedimentation can provide
satisfactory results provided that it is preceded by gravitational sedimentation.
Electrokinetic sedimentation offers some possibilities not available to conventional
sedimentation processes which have been reviewed in detail in this paper. Moreover,
electrokinetic sedimentation may potentially be used for reduction of the heavy metal
concentration and demineralisation and migration of ions and organic matters present in
various solid-liquid systems. However, much more investigation is required to collect the
data from various solid-liquid systems, so that they can be used in proper assessment and
reasonable improvement of electrokinetic sedimentation process as well as devices.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Ministry of Higher
Education, Malaysia (Grant no. FRGS-13-029-0270) and we gratefully acknowledge the
support.
388 M.M. Alam et al.
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