What factors affect the flocculation effect of cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM)?

Cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) is a commonly used flocculant for water treatment. Factors that affect the flocculation effect and can be controlled manually include the type and dosage of CPAM, wastewater pH, stirring time and settling time, and their reasonable setting is critical to the flocculation effect of CPAM.

What is high molecular weight polyacrylamide (PAM)?

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative High molecular weight (106–3 × 107 Da) polyacrylamide (PAM) is commonly used as a flocculant in water and wastewater treatment, as a soil conditioner, and as a viscosity modifier and friction reducer in both enhanced oil recovery and high volume hydraulic fracturing.

What is polyacrylamide (PAM) used for?

In water treatment and industrial production, polyacrylamide (PAM) is widely used as an important flocculant in wastewater treatment, pulp production, ore processing, and other fields. Based on its ionic properties, PAM can be divided into anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) and cationic PAM (CPAM).

How does anionic polyacrylamide (Apam) work?

Anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) carries a negative charge, and its molecular chain contains polar groups such as carboxyl groups. These groups can neutralize charges with positively charged particles in water and form larger flocs through bridging, thus accelerating the sedimentation of particles in the suspension.

What are CPAM flocculation methods?

CPAM contains long molecular chains and many cationic units, so its main flocculation methods are adsorption bridging and charge neutralization .

Which CPAM product was selected as a flocculant?

The CPAM product No. CPAM-8.14-40.2 in Table 1 was selected as the flocculant, the wastewater identical to that of the single-factor test was the treated object, reducing the wastewater turbidity was the optimization goal, and the CPAM dosage, the wastewater pH and the stirring time were influencing factors.