Treatment of algae-rich water by coagulation combined with an adsorbent based on sewage sludge

This work aimed to investigate the performance and the capacity of combined chemical coagulation and sludge based carbon (SBC) adsorption process on algae-rich wastewater treatment by evaluating the optimization of process control and algae organic matter changes.The results showed that the pH value and the presence of excess negative charge affect the efficiency of the coagulation-adsorption process on algae removal by restabilization of algae cells.An increase in the average algal floc size was observed during the coagulation process, indicating a significant enhancement of algal cells aggregation by the charge neutralization mechanism.Three dimensional excitation emission matrix fluorescence (3D-EEM) showed that the best removal efficiency of tryptophan proteins, fulvic acids and humic acids occurred under combined coagulation-adsorption process rather than single coagulation process and at optimal condition.