Influence of surface charge distributions and particle size distributions on particle attachment in granular media...

Filtration experiments were performed with a laboratory-scale filter using spherical glass beads with 0.55 mm diameter as collectors. Suspensions were made with Min-U-Sil 5 particles, and two different methods (pH control and polymer dosing) were used for destabilization. In the pH control experiments, all particles had negative surface charge, and those with lower (absolute value) charge were selectively attached to the collectors, especially during the early stage of filtration. This selective attachment of the lower charged particles caused the zeta potential distribution (ZPD) of the effluent to move to a more negative range. However, the ZPD of the effluent did not continue moving to more negative values during the later stages of filtration, and this result was attributed to two reasons: ripening effects and detachment of flocs. In the polymer experiments, substantial differences were found between experiments performed with negatively charged particles (underdosing) and those with positively charged particles (overdosing). With under-dosing, the results were similar to the pH control experiments (which also had negatively charged particles), but with overdosing, the effluent's ZPDs in the early stages did not overlap with those of the influent and more highly charged particles were removed more efficiently than lesser-charged particles. It is hypothesized that, despite a substantial period of pre-equilibration of media and coagulant, this equilibrium shifted when particles were also added. It was assumed that coagulant molecules previously adsorbed to the particles desorbed and subsequently attached to the filter media because of surface area differences in the particle and filter media.