Coagulation/flocculation of dye-containing solutions using polyaluminium chloride and alum

This study aims to compare the performance of Polyaluminium Chloride (PAC) and alum as coagulants to remove a specific type of dye (Acid Blue 292 (AB292)) from dye-containing solution. For this purpose, the influence of pH, coagulant dosage, coagulant aids (kaolinite and bentonite), and initial dye concentration on dye removal efficiency were examined. According to the results, removal of AB292 was absolutely dependent on the pH variations. The maximum dye removal occurred when pH was 7 and 5 for PAC and alum, respectively. Both coagulants efficiently removed the dye (about 85%) with a relatively low dosage (40 mg/l) in their optimum pH range. By adding kaolinite as a coagulant aid, the removal efficiencies tended to increase, especially for lower dosages of PAC and alum. With the increase of initial dye concentration, PAC and alum represented different behaviors. In the case of PAC, Q (the amount of the removed dye per unit mass of coagulant) increased at first and reached to a maximum value, 2.1 mg dye/mg PAC, and then decreased rapidly. While for alum, Q steadily increased with the increase of dye concentration and reached to 2.8 mg dye/mg alum. No reduction of Q occurred for alum with the increase of dye concentration in the range of 25–250 mg/l.