3.1.1. Comparison of flocculating ability of extracted bio-flocculant
with literature results
The flocculating ability of the okra bio-flocculant extracted in
this study was compared with other work that studied the application
of okra bio-flocculants on different types of wastewater
treatment. The comparison is displayed in Supplementary Table S3.
In other studies it was noted that the treatment process may
require the addition of coagulant or pH adjustment, and require
long treatment times in order to obtain good flocculating performance. For treatment of solutions low in SS or TU the
negative colloidal particles are generally well dispersed, and hence
a coagulant is required. In many cases, pH adjustment is needed to
achieve the isoelectric point for formation of flocs (Chong, 2012).
In this work very efficient flocculating performance was
achievable directly, without addition of coagulant and pH alteration.
The treatment time was significant shorter compared to
other studies. There is no requirement of pH adjustment due to the
near neutral behaviour of the bio-flocculant. It is postulated that
the bio-polymer extracted has long and branched chains which
adsorb on the surface of colloidal particles and bring them together.
This indicates that the extracted bio-flocculant exhibits the ability
to form big and densely packed flocs which settle rapidly during
treatment of solutions high in SS.