The influence of hydrophobicity on sludge dewatering associated with cationic starch-based flocculants

Coagulation/flocculation is an extensive and effective pretreatment technology for improving the sludge dewaterability. A series of hydrophobically associated cationic starch-based flocculants (CS-DMRs) with different degrees of hydrophobicity but similar charge densities were designed and synthesized. The CS-DMRs exhibited excellent sludge dewatering performance. The dewaterability of sludge increased with the hydrophobicity of the CS-DMRs, and the filter cake moisture content (FCMC) and specific resistance to filtration (SRF) could be reduced from 95.47% and 7.09 × 10¹² m/kg to 79.26% and 2.258 × 10¹² m/kg, respectively, at a constant pressure of 0.05 MPa after conditioned by the starch-based flocculant with the highest hydrophobicity at its optimal dose. Moreover, due to their amphiphilic structures, CS-DMRs could closely interact with the negatively charged extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), efficiently compress the protein and polysaccharide in EPS, and release the bound water. A second-order polynomial model was proposed according to the phenomenological theory to quantitatively analyze the effect of hydrophobicity in these starch-based flocculants on the sludge dewaterability. The structure-activity relationship was built, and the optimal dose and corresponding FCMC could be theoretically estimated accordingly. The results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The dewatering mechanisms were also discussed in detail on the basis of the changes in the FCMC, SRF, capillary suction time, properties of sludge flocs, compression coefficient, microstructures of sludge cakes, EPS fractions and components, and spatial distributions of the proteins and polysaccharides. In addition to charge neutralization, the hydrophobic association effects of CS-DMRs played an important role in the formation of drainage channels and net-like porous structures in the sludge cake to improve its permeability and filterability. This study thus provided a good understanding of the structural effects of the starch-based flocculants on the sludge dewaterability. The results are greatly beneficial to the fabrication and utilization of environment-friendly and high-performance natural polymeric conditioners for sludge treatment.