Compared to organic polymer flocculants, microbial flocculants possess advantages such as a wide flocculation range, high activity, safety, non-toxicity, and environmental friendliness. Furthermore, they are suitable for various applications and exhibit broad-spectrum flocculation activity, making them widely applicable in water supply and wastewater treatment.
1. Treatment of High-Concentration Organic Wastewater: High-concentration organic wastewater mainly includes livestock wastewater and other food and agricultural wastewater. Such wastewater typically undergoes pretreatment processes such as flocculation before biochemical treatment. Microbial flocculants have a better flocculation effect than SPA (Special Purified Polymer) flocculants. This means that if microbial flocculants are mixed with a large amount of SPA beforehand, the pretreatment effect of the wastewater can be further improved, and the total dosage of the agents can be significantly reduced.
2. Dyeing and Printing Wastewater: Dyeing and printing wastewater is characterized by its light color and complex composition, containing dyes, sizing agents, auxiliaries, fibers, gums, waxes, organic salts, and other substances. It remains one of the major challenges in the treatment of industrial wastewater in China. The main drawbacks of this treatment are: 1) high COD and a relatively high B/C ratio, resulting in poor scalability; 2) high color and complex composition. The key to treating dyeing and printing wastewater lies in decolorization. Among various treatment methods, flocculation is widely adopted due to its low investment cost, small equipment footprint, small treatment capacity, and high decolorization rate. Compared with microbial flocculants, polyferric flocculants not only possess excellent flocculation and sedimentation performance but also exhibit excellent color removal effects, giving them advantages over conventional flocculants in dyeing and printing wastewater treatment.
3. Treatment of High-Concentration Organic Suspended Wastewater: High-concentration organic suspended wastewater is a type of wastewater that cannot be effectively treated. Traditional methods typically employ chemical flocculation and treatment. Microbial flocculants can also be used to treat water samples such as kaolin, mud slurry, and fly ash. In experiments, microbial flocculants have been used to treat ceramic factory wastewater, glaze wastewater, and body wastewater.
4. The effectiveness of activated sludge in treating fragmented wastewater often decreases due to deterioration in the sludge's refining properties. Adding microbial flocculants to activated sludge can rapidly reduce the sludge volume index, prevent sludge flocculation, eliminate sludge shrinkage, and thus restore the sludge's refining capacity, improving the overall efficiency of the treatment system.
As a novel type of flocculant, microbial flocculants have excellent application prospects and are widely used in the treatment of high-concentration organic wastewater, dye wastewater treatment, activated sludge treatment, and other wastewater treatment applications, demonstrating strong vitality.
