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Enhanced Coagulation of Low Turbid Water for Drinking Water Treatment:

Dosing Approach on Floc Formation and Residuals Minimization

Article in Environmental Engineering Science · March 2019

DOI: 10.1089/ees.2018.0430

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 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
Volume 36, Number 6, 2019
ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/ees.2018.0430

Enhanced Coagulation of Low Turbid Water for Drinking Water Treatment:

Dosing Approach on Floc Formation and Residuals Minimization
Jr-Lin Lin* and Aldeno Rachmad Ika

Department of Environmental Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, Taiwan.

Received: October 3, 2018 Accepted in revised form: February 2, 2019

Abstract
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Polyaluminum chloride (PACl) has been commonly used in drinking water treatment. However, it is not easy for
drinking water treatment plant to carry out an effective coagulant dosing with PACl for low turbidity water with
high pH where the excessed Al would remain in the water, which has been a concern for its risk to human health.
The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of dosing approaches with alternative coagulants on the
minimization of residual particulate matter and Al after coagulation-sedimentation process, and their coagulation
behaviors. Two coagulant dosing approaches, including single and dual dosing, were adapted to evaluate coag-
ulation performance in terms of turbidity, remaining Al and filterability for natural low turbidity water. A real-
time floc image analyzer (i.e., FlocCAM) was used to evaluate the floc size during coagulation with commercial
PACl or ferric chloride (FeCl3) and the combination. The results showed that FeCl3 coagulation gives the fastest
and biggest growth in floc size with active Fe(OH)3, but single FeCl3 dosing brings an adverse effect on
filterability of low turbidity water treatment. At dual dosing (PACl/FeCl3 = 1:1), the residual turbidity (RT) and Al
minimization are not further improved even though floc formation is facilitated. However, the single dosing with
alternative PACl coagulant (PACl-C) would result in equivalent RT and dissolved Al with change in dosage. This
study showed that a tailored PACl-C with low monomeric Al and high colloidal Al content can be used for the
substitution of dual dosing (PACl+FeCl3) to achieve minimization of RT and Al in low turbid water treatment.

Keywords: coagulation; dissolved Al; FeCl3; PACl; water treatment

Introduction conducted to lower the residual Al in finished water to an

acceptable level (<0.2 mg/L as Al) for drinking water safety
C oagulation is an essential treatment process used to
aggregate small particles in drinking water treatment.
Polyaluminum chloride (PACl) is a commonly used type of
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018) and (<0.16 mg/
L as Al) for drinking water safety limit in Taiwan. Single dosing
with Al-based coagulant was not effective in reducing re-
hydrolyzed coagulant in the water treatment process. Op-
sidual Al after coagulation, especially for low turbidity water
erators usually applied overdosing of coagulants to reduce
(10–15 nephelometric turbidity unit [NTU]).
turbidity and to ensure the quality of treated water, but re-
In general, there are fewer suspended remaining particles
sulting in excessed residual Al in finished water more than the
with small particle size in low turbidity water. In addition,
limit of drinking water standard. High level of aluminum in
particles collision and flocculation occurrence can be very
the human body is known to have negative effects toward the
low even before coagulation (Nidheesh et al., 2017). Thus, it
brain, especially in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease
lowers the possibility of Al ion or hydrolyzed Al species to be
and dementia (Kawahara and Kato-Negishi, 2011; Killin
adsorbed to the surface of suspended particles during coagu-
et al., 2016). Aluminum as a potent neurotoxin can accu-
lation (Yao et al., 2014). Alternatively, ferric chloride (FeCl3)
mulate in the human body and has side effects such as
coagulant has been used to replace some parts of PACl coag-
memory loss and impaired coordination (Yasui et al., 1997);
ulant (PACl-C) to reduce Al concentration in finished water
in addition of its immunotoxicity effect to the human body
and improve coagulation performance for removal of colloidal
(Zhu et al., 2014).
or organic contaminants from water (Qureshi and Malmberg,
To comply with drinking water standard limitation, in
1985; Park et al., 2016).
conventional drinking water treatment plants (DWTP), dual
In theory, flocs formed by coagulation with Al-based co-
dosing with Al- and Fe-based coagulants was alternatively
agulants are quite different from that with Fe-based coagu-
lants. Al-flocs are less compact than Fe-flocs, which could
*Corresponding author: Department of Environmental Engineering, affect the coagulation performance for turbidity reduction
Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, 32023, Taiwan. Phone: ( Jarvis et al., 2012). In addition, the chemical properties of
+886-3-2654904; Fax: +886-3-2564949; E-mail: jrlin@cycu.edu.tw coagulation using dual coagulants are more complex than

732
 ENHANCED COAGULATION OF LOW TURBID WATER
that of single coagulants. Complexity and competition be-
tween the two coagulants might reduce their effectiveness,
and/or the zone of coagulation for the mixed coagulant might
be larger than either coagulant by itself. There is no discern-
ible improvement in coagulating ability by dual coagulation
over single coagulant ( Johnson and Amirtharajah, 1983).
In practice, it is better to have an effective single-dosing
approach to achieve lower turbidity and Al concentration in
finished water. Studies have reported that tailored PACl with
low content of monomeric Al or high content of polymeric Al
is effective to lower residual Al in coagulation process (Yang
et al., 2010; Kimura et al., 2013). On the contrary, other
studies have indicated that pH effect on residual turbidity
(RT) or organic matter level and remaining Al is also sig-
nificant for drinking water treatment (Duan and Gregory,
2003; Yan et al., 2008; Yang et al., 2011).
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Controlling the final pH of PACl coagulation in the range
from 5.5 to 6 is an effective and feasible way for reducing
remaining Al in water. Unfortunately, coagulation is com-
monly conducted at neutral pH to improve the floc formation
and turbidity reduction by enmeshment as the operators run
the DWTP. Either single or dual dosing with Al-and Fe-based
coagulants has its own limitation to improve the coagulation
performance in terms of turbidity and Al reduction.
Although it has been proved that dual dosing with Al- and
Fe-based coagulants would improve the reduction of residual Al
in finished water for DWTP, it also increases the difficulty to
constantly control the dosing ratio between Al- and Fe-based
coagulants. It is known that single dosing with PACl-C con-
taining lowered monomeric Al can avoid the occurrence of high
residual Al concentration (Kimura et al., 2013) in finished water,
but it may result in an adverse effect on coagulation performance
for turbidity reduction, depending on the formation of flocs and
their structure characteristics (Lin et al., 2008a).
In engineering application, an effective single or dual
dosing with alternative coagulants is crucial to improve co-
agulation performance for simultaneous reduction of tur-
bidity and residual Al in drinking water for DWTP. However,
the coagulation behaviors between single and dual dosing
with Al- and Fe-based coagulants are still unclear and the
effect of their hydrolyzed coagulant species on particle de-
stabilization and residual Al minimization need further in-
vestigations, especially for low turbid water.
This study aims to investigate more rational approaches to
enhance coagulation for RT and Al minimization using Al-
and Fe-based coagulants in drinking water treatment for low
turbid water, particularly the single or dual dosing with PACl
and FeCl3 coagulant. Their coagulation behaviors with dif-
ferent hydrolyzed coagulant species were compared to
identify the conditions affecting the minimization of residu-
als (i.e., particles and Al).
Materials and Methods
Raw water quality
Raw water was collected from Hsinchu Water Treatment
Plant, Taiwan and tested for its characteristics. pH was
measured using pH meter (sensION+ pH 1; Hach) at pH
7.7 – 0.1, turbidity was measured using turbidity meter
(2100P; Hach) at 15 – 1 NTU, and dissolved organic carbon
was measured using total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer
(TOC-5000A; Shimadzu) at 2.1 mg/L.
733
Table 1. Characteristics and Species
Distribution of Coagulants
Type of coagulants pH Basicity Ala (%) Alb (%) Alc (%)
PACl-C 3.3 65 33 17 50
PACl-W 3.2 45 43 28 29
FeCl3 2.5 — 95 4 1
Ala, monomeric Al; Alb, polymeric Al; Alc, colloidal Al; FeCl3,
ferric chloride; PACl, polyaluminum chloride.
Characterization of coagulants
Two commercially used PACl coagulants, designated as
PACl-C (Chung Hwa Chemical Industrial Works) and PACl-
W (Train sound), were used in this study. Al speciation of
PACl-C and PACl-W was determined by Ferron method (Lin
et al., 2008b). The PACl-C contains about 33% monomeric Al
(Ala), 17% polymeric Al (Alb), and 50% colloidal Al (Alc),
while the PACl-W has 43% monomeric Al (Ala), 28% poly-
meric Al (Alb), and 29% colloidal Al (Alc). Aluminum con-
centration was analyzed by an inductively coupled plasma
optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES 7000 series; Agilent).
In addition, a reagent-grade FeCl3 coagulant was used for this
study. FeCl3 species distribution was measured by a time
complexation spectroscopy method (Dong et al., 2014). PACl-
C, PACl-W, and FeCl3 characteristics and species distribution
are shown in Table 1. The working solutions containing
2,000 mg/L Al or Fe were freshly prepared before each test.
Coagulation protocol
Standard jar trials (Phipps and Bird) were conducted to
evaluate coagulation performances. Two kinds of coagulant
dosing approaches, including single dosing (PACl-C or
PACl-W and FeCl3) and dual dosing (PACl+FeCl3), were
carried out for this study. Initial rapid mixing was conducted
at 200 rpm (G = 350/s) for 1 min followed by a slow mixing at
30 rpm (G = 25/s) for 20 min. The suspension was left un-
disturbed for 20 min. After settling, the turbidity of super-
natant was measured by a turbidity meter (2100 P; Hach) and
the residual dissolved Al was quantified by ICP-OES (ICP-
OES 7000 series; Agilent). The zeta potentials of the sus-
pension were measured via a laser zeta analyzer (Zetasizer
nano ZS; Malvern, Inc.) immediately after the rapid mixing
without dilution. All tests were conducted in triplicate.
Filterability test
A suction time index (STI) test was first reported by Ives
(1978) to evaluate the filterability of water samples. The
filtration times of 500 mL of supernatant and distilled water
were determined separately by use of a suction filtration
device (membrane filter with a pore size of 1 lm) at
-680 mmHg to calculate the STI value as follows:
Suction time of 500 mL of supernatant ðsÞ
STI ¼
Suction time of 500 mL of distilled water ðsÞ
Floc formation analysis
Average floc particle total number and diameter were an-
alyzed using a FlocCAM camera installed on the standard
 734 LIN AND IKA

square jar beaker used in coagulation protocol following

similar methodology by Lapointe and Barbeau (2017). Built-in
FlocCAM software sorted flocs into pixels and indexed as
follow: (with N as a reported parameter for total particle count).
Average floc particle diameter was calculated by con-
verting areas from square pixels into square millimeters
based on FlocCAM calibration factor, using the following
formula:

1X N
AvgFlocDiameter ¼ d ði Þ
N i¼1

Spherical flocs areas were calculated based on the effective

diameter [d(i)] using the following formula:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
AðiÞ
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dðiÞ ¼ 2
p
Identification of fractal shaped flocs formation is based on
both flocs area and circumferences. Circumferences were
calculated by counting the edge pixels of each floc in units of
pixels that later converted into millimeters using FlocCAM
calibration factor. Fractal dimension (FD) as the parameter was
calculated by plotting a graph of the logarithm of the flocs area
and the logarithm of their circumferences where the slope of
the linear-fit line is equal to fractal dimension, where the FD is
the two-dimensional fractal dimension. Other than that, the
floc formation rate was determined by following formula:

Floc formation rate ðmm=minÞ

Floc size ð10minÞ  Floc size ðinitialÞ
¼
10 min
Results and Discussion
Particle destabilization
Figure 1 shows the influence of dose (0.00–0.09 mM) on
RT by PACl-C, PACl-W, FeCl3, and PACl-W+FeCl3 (molar
ratio = 1:1). As shown in Fig. 1a, there are no significant
differences in RT before dosing for all coagulants. At low
dosage (0.03 mM), PACl-W coagulation resulted in lower RT
at 2 NTU than PACl-C coagulation at 5 NTU. However, with
increasing dosage to 0.09 mM, the RT reduction by coagu-
lation with PACl-C was improved, although overall RT re-
duction was still worse than PACl-C. On the contrary, dual
dosing by combination of PACl-W with FeCl3 at the lowest
dosage of 0.03 mM reduced the RT as low as 3 NTU, and it
shows insignificant changes toward RT with further increases
in dosage. FeCl3 coagulation resulted in the lowest turbidity
reduction at increasing dosages. These results indicate that
dosing approaches with single or dual dosing would signifi-
cantly affect the coagulation performance for turbidity re-
duction. The marked difference in turbidity reduction for
single dosing also occurred while two kinds of PACl coag-
ulants containing different Al speciation were used.
Figure 1b shows the influence of dose (0.00–0.09 mM) on
zeta potential changes by PACl-C, PACl-W, FeCl3, and
PACl-W+FeCl3. There is an increase in zeta potential from
-15 to +5 mV along with the increase in single or dual co-
agulant dose. Zero zeta potential is reached for PACl-C and
FIG. 1. Influence of dose on changes in (a) residual tur-
bidity and (b) zeta potential by coagulation with single- or
dual-dosing approaches.
PACl-W at similar dose between 0.03 and 0.06 mM, but it has
occurred with a higher dose of 0.09 for dual coagulant dosing
with PACl-W+FeCl3. On the contrary, the zeta potential re-
mains below neutral between -5 and -10 mV with increasing
dosage for FeCl3 coagulation. The optimal turbidity reduc-
tion occurred with increasing dose of PACl-W, FeCl3, and
PACl-W+FeCl3 at 0.06 mM, however, it was reached for
PACl-C coagulation at 0.09 mM. Therefore, either single
PACl-W dosing or dual dosing with PACl-W and FeCl3 can
bring optimal particle destabilization at near neutral surface
charge of destabilized particles by charge neutralization.
This is owing to the polymeric Al content of PACl-W at
28% Alb although lesser charge neutralization also occurs for
PACl-C at lower polymeric Al content at 17% Alb. This re-
action is in accordance with the previous study by Duan and
Gregory (2003) and Zhang et al. (2018) where particle desta-
bilization, in this case residuals, takes place due to the repul-
sion force by neutralization of negative charges. Moreover,
PACl-C containing dominant colloidal Al [i.e., Al(OH)3] is
able to induce particle destabilization by enmeshment (Liu
et al., 2009) as well as FeCl3 containing voluminous mono-
meric Fe(III) would hydrolyze to Fe(OH)3 precipitates during
initial coagulation for particle destabilization (Dong et al.,
2014). It is likely that active Fe(OH)3 precipitates formed by
 ENHANCED COAGULATION OF LOW TURBID WATER
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FIG. 2. Effect of dosage toward filterability of supernatant
by coagulation with single- or dual-dosing approaches.
the hydrolysis of Fe (III) are able to adsorb onto colloids
partially, which is evidenced by the negative zeta potential.
Adsorption of active Fe(OH)3 precipitates improved particle
aggregation and floc formation for effective turbidity reduction
by formation of many binding sites. Thus, the single PACl-C
and FeCl3 dosing predominantly favors enmeshment induced
by hydrolyzed Al(OH)3 and Fe(OH)3, respectively. The results
showed that tailored PACl-C containing dominant colloidal Al
can improve turbidity reduction at optimum dosage, while
turbidity reduction by dual coagulation with PACl-W and
FeCl3 is lower than by either coagulant itself.
The lower the STI value, the higher the filterability of
supernatant with lower particle counts (Lin et al., 2015). As
shown in Fig. 2, the filterability of supernatant was constant
with STI value of 5.8 before coagulation. The STI values
decreased with increasing coagulant dosage for single co-
agulation with PACl-C or PACl-W and dual dosing with
PACl-W and FeCl3. However, single FeCl3 dosing resulted in
insignificant changes in STI values with increasing dosage.
FeCl3 coagulation is known to favors enmeshment resulting
in voluminous Fe(OH)3 which remains in the supernatant,
thus increases burden of the filter and lower the corre-
sponding filterability. These results indicate that single
PACl-C or PACl-W dosing and dual dosing with PACl-W
and FeCl3 effectively lower suspended particle counts of low
turbidity water after coagulation and sedimentation process,
but single FeCl3 coagulant dosing brings an adverse effect on
filterability for low turbidity water treatment.
Dissolved Al minimization
Removal of dissolved Al after the addition of Al-based
coagulants during conventional coagulation water treatment
process can be challenging because most of dissolved Al
would penetrate through the filter to form residuals. There-
fore, it is important to minimize the residual dissolved Al in
coagulation in the water supply. For all coagulation ap-
proaches, the residual dissolved Al concentration at pH
7.6 – 0.1 (Fig. 3b) increased following initial dosing at
0.03 mM (Fig. 3) with further increases in dosage showed an
insignificant decrease in residual dissolved Al concentration.
735
FIG. 3. Influence of dose on (a) residual dissolved Al (b)
pH by coagulation with single- or dual-dosing approaches.
Residual Al reached as low as 0.045 mg/L for PACl-C co-
agulation with a similar trend for PACl-W+FeCl3 coagula-
tion, while PACl-W coagulation resulted in a higher residual
dissolved Al of 0.08 mg/L.
Study has proved that lowering monomeric Al in PACl
coagulant can lower the residual dissolved Al in solution
based on water chemistry principle (Kimura et al., 2013). The
particle count in low turbidity water is too little to provide
sufficient surface for monomeric or polymeric Al adsorption,
resulting in more residual Al in supernatant. Since PACl-C
coagulant contains half colloidal Al [Al(OH)3] and fewer
monomeric Al ion as low as 33%, it could produce lower
residual dissolved Al in coagulation for low turbidity water
treatment. In contrast, PACl-W containing higher monomeric
and polymeric Al, more than 70% of total Al concentration
and lesser colloidal Al, would easily result in more residual
dissolved Al in the supernatant since monomeric Al has
higher possibility to remain in solution at low turbidity.
As discussed by Duan et al. (2014), monomeric Al may form
small and weak monomeric Al complex which is hard to be
removed, in contrast with polymeric and colloidal Al species
that can form bigger and more compact flocs that readily ab-
sorb particles. These findings have verified that a single dosing
with tailored PACl-C containing higher colloidal Al and lower
monomeric Al level can perform an effective coagulation at an
 736
optimum dosage to lower the RT and remaining dissolved Al in
supernatant for the substitution of dual dosing with PACl-W
and FeCl3.
Floc formation
In addition, particle aggregation and floc formation would
substantially influence coagulation performance for turbidity
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FIG. 4. Changes in floc size and counts during coagula-
tion with single- or dual-dosing approaches at various dos-
ages [(a) 0.03 mM (b) 0.06 mM (c) 0.09 mM].
LIN AND IKA
reduction. As shown in Fig. 4, FlocCAM image analysis
shows the floc growth by single and dual dosing at dosage of
0.03, 0.06 and 0.09 mM between 0 and 20 min during the
coagulation process. In respect to particle aggregation, FeCl3
coagulation initially causes the fastest and biggest growth in
floc size at various dosages. After coagulation, the size of floc
formed by FeCl3 coagulation reached around 600 lm at an
optimum dosage of 0.06 mM. At similar dosage, PACl-
W+FeCl3 coagulation showed a smaller growth by forming
floc size of 400 lm after coagulation. It is found that PACl-C
and PACl-W coagulation show insignificant differences with
the floc size of 300 – 20 lm after coagulation at optimum
dosage.
It can be determined that FeCl3 coagulation results in the
biggest floc formation with fastest particle aggregation. Dong
et al. (2014) have reported that FeCl3 coagulant with more
monomeric Fe would cause a bigger floc during coagulation
and has better performance in terms of turbidity reduction.
Although previous study has reported that there is no discern-
ible improvement in coagulating ability by the dual coagulant
over the single coagulant ( Johnson and Amirtharajah, 1983),
our study showed that the combination of PACl-W and FeCl3
can improve particle aggregation, resulting in the improvement
for minimization of turbidity for low turbidity water, compared
to single dosing with PACl-W or PACl-C.
The floc formation rate at various coagulant dosing ap-
proaches was also shown in Fig. 5. It shows the variation of
floc formation rate with dosage for single and dual dosing.
The floc formation rate increases with increasing dosage.
At the optimum dosage of 0.06 mM, the FeCl3, PACl-C, and
PACl-W+FeCl3 achieved maximum floc formation rate and
decreases with a further increase in dosage to 0.09 mM.
Overall, FeCl3 or PACl-W+FeCl3 coagulation has better floc
formation rate compared to coagulation with single dosing by
PACl-W or PACl-C.
Floc properties such as size and fractal dimension for
single or dual dosing are shown in Table 2. Both fractal di-
mension (FD) and average diameter of floc formed by coag-
ulation with single FeCl3 dosing are the largest (i.e., FD = 1.63
and average diameter = 650 lm) at optimum dosage of
FIG. 5. Changes in floc formation rate during coagulation
with single- or dual-dosing approaches at various dosages.
 ENHANCED COAGULATION OF LOW TURBID WATER
Table 2. Characterization of Floc Formed
by Coagulation with Single- or Dual-Dosing
Approaches at Optimum Dosage (0.06 mM)
Average
Coagulant dosing diameter
approach Morphology FD (lm)
PACl-C 1.17 280
(Ala/Alb/Alc =
33/17/50)
PACl-W 1.29 320
(Ala/Alb/Alc =
43/28/29)
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FeCl3 (Fea/Feb/Fec = 1.63 650
95/4/1)
PACl-W+FeCl3 1.22 400
FD, fractal dimension.
0.06 mM, which means the floc formed by FeCl3 coagulation
is larger with more compact structure compared to single
PACl-W and PACl-C dosing or dual dosing with PACl-
W+FeCl3.
In addition, it is found that the FD of floc formed by dual
coagulation with PACl-W and FeCl3 is very similar to that at
single dosing with PACl-C or PACl-W. It is known that the
higher the FD, the more compact the floc is (Chakrabortia
et al., 2003; Lin et al., 2008a), but as mentioned in other
study, compact flocs with high FD can erode easily by shear,
especially for low turbid water where strength of flocs is low
(Lin et al., 2013). As mentioned above, dual dosing with
PACl-W and FeCl3 would not improve the compactness of
floc compared to single PACl-W and PACl-C dosing. It can
be concluded after evaluation of floc properties that dosing
approaches with single or dual coagulant would strongly
affect the floc formation and its structure. The addition of
FeCl3 coupled with PACl-W at 1:1 can improve more particle
aggregation and bigger floc size than single PACl-W dosing,
but it would have little effect on the compactness of floc.
Possible coagulation behaviors
A proposed coagulation behavior for single or dual dosing
with PACl and FeCl3 is plotted as Fig. 6 based on the results
of particle destabilization and aggregation. As single dosing
with PACl containing high monomeric or colloidal Al content
is carried out, a lot of monomeric Al (Al3+) or colloidal Al
[Al(OH)3(colloidal)] would continuously hydrolyze into posi-
tively charged amorphous aluminum hydroxide [Al(OH)3(am)]
that preferentially adsorb to the surface of colloids during
initial coagulation and then particle aggregation occurs to
form smaller floc with loose structure. In the case of single
737
FIG. 6. Possible coagulation behaviors for single or dual
dosing with PACl and FeCl3. FeCl3, ferric chloride; PACl,
polyaluminum chloride.
FeCl3 dosing, voluminous Fe(OH)3 would precipitate on the
surface of colloids by Fe3+ hydrolysis and then form a big floc
with dense structure. Because the solubility of Fe3+ is much
less than that of Al3+ at neutral pH (Duan and Gregory, 2003),
active Fe(OH)3 precipitates are able to adsorb onto colloids
partially where the negative zeta potential is found at various
dosage. By the adsorption of active Fe(OH)3 precipitates, many
binding sites are formed to improve particle aggregation be-
tween colloidal contacts, causing the formation of big and
dense flocs.
However, it is more complicated in particle destabilization
and aggregation for coagulation using dual dosing with PACl
and FeCl3. At dual dosing, it is likely that the majority of
Fe(OH)3 preferentially adsorb to colloids followed by other
Al(OH)3(am) precipitates during coagulation, which induces
the precipitation of Al(OH)3(am) on the Fe(OH)3. This reduces
the number of binding site with active Fe(OH)3, and possibly
inhibit the particle aggregation, resulting in the smaller flocs
compared to coagulation with single FeCl3 dosing.
Conclusions
Enhanced coagulation for remaining turbidity and dis-
solved Al minimization by a hybrid coagulant dosing with
commercial PACl and FeCl3 can be achieved in low turbidity
water treatment as well as it would be substituted by a single
dosing with alternative PACl coagulant containing lower
monomeric Al with higher polymeric and colloidal Al. In
addition, the turbidity reduction by coagulation with mixed
PACl and FeCl3 is slightly less than either coagulant by itself.
Generally, FeCl3 coagulation causes the fastest and biggest
growth in floc size, but single FeCl3 dosing brings an adverse
effect on filterability for low turbidity water treatment. The
addition of FeCl3 and PACl coagulant at 1:1 can accelerate
floc formation compared to single PACl dosing, but the
compactness of floc would be insensitive to the combination
 738
of dual coagulants. For natural low turbidity water, it is
feasible to achieve minimization of RT and dissolved Al
using dual dosing with PACl and FeCl3 or single dosing with
a commercial PACl-C containing high colloidal Al.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Taiwan Water Corporation and Mr. Chen
Chien-Chang for the assistance in water sampling and the data
analysis of coagulation experiments.
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.
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