Flocculation

IUPAC definition
Flocculation (in polymer science): When a sol
is colloidally unstable (I.e., the rate of
aggregation is not negligible) then the
formation of aggregates is called flocculation
or coagulation.[1]

Agglomeration (except in polymer science)

Coagulation (except in polymer science)
Flocculation (except in polymer science)
Process of contact and adhesion whereby
dispersed molecules or particles are held
together by weak physical interactions
ultimately leading to phase separation by the
formation of precipitates of larger than
colloidal size.

Note 1: In contrast to aggregation,

agglomeration is a reversible process.

Note 2: The definition proposed here is

recommended for distinguishing
agglomeration from aggregation.

Note 3: Quotation from ref.[1][2]

Flocculation, in the field of chemistry, is a

process wherein colloids come out of
suspension in the form of floc or flake,
either spontaneously or due to the addition
of a clarifying agent. The action differs
from precipitation in that, prior to
flocculation, colloids are merely
suspended in a liquid and not actually
dissolved in a solution. In the flocculated
system, there is no formation of a cake,
since all the flocs are in the suspension.

Coagulation and flocculation are important

processes in water treatment with
coagulation to destabilize particles
through chemical reaction between
coagulant and colloids, and flocculation to
transport the destabilized particles that
will cause collisions with floc.
Term definition
According to the IUPAC definition,
flocculation is "a process of contact and
adhesion whereby the particles of a
dispersion form larger-size clusters".
Flocculation is synonymous with
agglomeration and coagulation /
coalescence.[3][4]

Basically, coagulation is a process of

addition of coagulant to destabilize a
stabilized charged particle. Meanwhile,
flocculation is a mixing technique that
promotes agglomeration and assists in
the settling of particles. The most
common used coagulant is alum,
Al2(SO4)3•14H2O.

The chemical reaction involved:

Al2(SO4)3•14H2O → 2Al(OH)3(s) + 6H+ +

3SO42- + 8H2O

During flocculation, gentle mixing

accelerates the rate of particle collision,
and the destabilized particles are further
aggregated and enmeshed into larger
precipitates. Flocculation is affected by
several parameters, including mixing
speeds, mixing intensity, and mixing time.
The product of the mixing intensity and
mixing time is used to describe
flocculation processes.

Applications
Surface chemistry

In colloid chemistry, flocculation refers to

the process by which fine particulates are
caused to clump together into a floc. The
floc may then float to the top of the liquid
(creaming), settle to the bottom of the
liquid (sedimentation), or be readily filtered
from the liquid. Flocculation behavior of
soil colloids is closely related to
freshwater quality. High dispersibility of
soil colloids not only directly causes
turbidity of the surrounding water but it
also induces eutrophication due to the
adsorption of nutritional substances in
rivers and lakes.

Physical chemistry

For emulsions, flocculation describes

clustering of individual dispersed droplets
together, whereby the individual droplets
do not lose their identity.[5] Flocculation is
thus the initial step leading to further
ageing of the emulsion (droplet
coalescence and the ultimate separation
of the phases). Flocculation is used in
mineral dressing.[6]

Civil engineering/earth
sciences

In civil engineering, and in the earth

sciences, flocculation is a condition in
which clays, polymers or other small
charged particles become attached and
form a fragile structure, a floc. In
dispersed clay slurries, flocculation occurs
after mechanical agitation ceases and the
dispersed clay platelets spontaneously
form flocs because of attractions between
negative face charges and positive edge
charges.

Biology

Flocculation is used in biotechnology

applications in conjunction with
microfiltration to improve the efficiency of
biological feeds. The addition of synthetic
flocculants to the bioreactor can increase
the average particle size making
microfiltration more efficient. When
flocculants are not added, cakes form and
accumulate causing low cell viability.
Positively charged flocculants work better
than negatively charged ones since the
cells are generally negatively charged.[7]

Cheese industry

Flocculation is widely employed to

measure the progress of curd formation in
the initial stages of cheese making to
determine how long the curds must
set.[8][9] The reaction involving the rennet
micelles are modeled by Smoluchowski
kinetics.[8] During the renneting of milk the
micelles can approach one another and
flocculate, a process that involves
hydrolysis of molecules and
macropeptides.[10]
Flocculation is also used during cheese
wastewater treatment. Three different
coagulants are mainly used:[11]

FeSO4 (Iron(II) sulfate)

Al2(SO4)3 (Aluminium sulfate)
FeCl3 (Iron(III) chloride)

Brewing

In the brewing industry flocculation has a

different meaning. It is a very important
process in fermentation during the
production of beer where cells form
macroscopic flocs. These flocs cause the
yeast to sediment or rise to the top of a
fermentation at the end of the
fermentation. Subsequently, the yeast can
be collected (cropped) from the top (ale
fermentation) or the bottom (lager
fermentation) of the fermenter in order to
be reused for the next fermentation. The
process is revisible and requires a micro-
amount of Calcium. While it appears
similar to sedimentation in colloidal
dispersions, the mechanisms are
different.[12]

Water treatment process

Flocculation and sedimentation are widely

employed in the purification of drinking
water as well as in sewage treatment,
storm-water treatment and treatment of
industrial wastewater streams. Typical
treatment processes consist of grates,
coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation,
granular filtration and disinfection.[13]

Jar test

The purpose of this test is to select types

of coagulant (alum) and also to estimate
the optimal dose needed in removing the
charged particles that occurred in raw
water. Jar test is an experiment to
understand the processes of coagulation,
flocculation and sedimentation (AWWA,
2011).
Jar test apparatus consists of six batch
beakers, and equipped with a paddle mixer
for each beaker. In a standard practice, jar
test involving of rapid mixing, then follow
by slow mixing and later with
sedimentation process.

Deflocculation
Deflocculation is the exact opposite of
flocculation, also sometimes known as
peptisation. Usually in higher pH ranges in
addition to low ionic strength of solutions
and domination of monovalent metal
cations the colloidal particles can be
dispersed.[14] The additive that prevents
the colloids from forming flocs is called a
deflocculant. According to the
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Polymers
deflocculation is "a state or condition of a
dispersion of a solid in a liquid in which
each solid particle remains independent
and unassociated with adjacent particles.
A deflocculated suspension shows zero or
very low yield value".[14]

Deflocculation can be a problem in

wastewater treatment plants as it
commonly causes sludge settling
problems and deterioration of the effluent
quality.
See also
Aggregation (disambiguation)
Algaculture
Clay-water interaction
Coagulation (water treatment)
Deposition (geology)
Depletion force
DLVO theory (stability of colloids)
Drilling mud
Isoelectric point
Lamella clarifier
Ostwald ripening
Peptisation
 Seawater
Sedimentation
Smoluchowski coagulation equation
Soil structure
Syneresis (chemistry)
Yeast flocculation

References
1. "Terminology of polymers and
polymerization processes in dispersed
systems (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)"
(PDF). Pure and Applied Chemistry. 83 (12):
2229–2259. 2011. doi:10.1351/PAC-REC-
10-06-03 .
2. Richard G. Jones; Edward S. Wilks; W. Val
Metanomski; Jaroslav Kahovec; Michael
Hess; Robert Stepto; Tatsuki Kitayama, eds.
(2009). Compendium of Polymer
Terminology and Nomenclature (IUPAC
Recommendations 2008) "The Purple Book"
(2nd ed.). RSC Publishing. ISBN 978-0-
85404-491-7.
3. IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical
Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book")
(1997). Online corrected version:  (2006–)
"flocculation ".
4. Hubbard, Arthur T. (2004). Encyclopedia
of Surface and Colloid Science . CRC Press.
p. 4230. ISBN 0-8247-0759-1. Retrieved
2007-11-13.
5. Adamson A.W. and Gast A.P. (1997)
"Physical Chemistry of Surfaces", John
Wiley and Sons.
6. Investigation of laws of selective
flocculation of coals with synthetic latexes /
P. V. Sergeev, V. S. Biletskyy // ICCS’97. 7–12
September 1997, Essen, Germany. V. 1. pp.
503–506.
7. Han, Binbing; Akeprathumchai, S.;
Wickramasinghe, S. R.; Qian, X. (2003-07-
01). "Flocculation of biological cells:
Experiment vs. theory" . AIChE Journal. 49
(7): 1687–1701.
doi:10.1002/aic.690490709 . ISSN 1547-
5905 .
8. Fox, Patrick F. (1999). Cheese Volume 1:
Chemistry, Physics, and Microbiology (2nd
ed.). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen
Publishers. pp. 144–150. ISBN 978-0-8342-
1378-4.
9. Journal of Scientific and Industrial
Research. 57: 680–681. 1998. Missing or
empty |title= (help)
10. Fox, Patrick F. (2004). Cheese -
Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology (3rd
Edition). Elsevier. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-12-
263653-0.
11. Rivas, Javier; Prazeres, Ana R.; Carvalho,
Fatima; Beltrán, Fernando (2010-07-14).
"Treatment of Cheese Whey Wastewater:
Combined Coagulation−Flocculation and
Aerobic Biodegradation" . Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 58 (13):
7871–7877. doi:10.1021/jf100602j .
ISSN 0021-8561 . PMID 20557068 .
12. Jin, Y-L.; Speers, R.A.. (1999).
"Flocculation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Food Res. Int". 31.: 421–440.
13. Beverly, Richard P (2014-04-17). "Water
Treatment Process Monitoring and
Evaluation" . Knovel. American Water Works
Association (AWWA). Retrieved October 14,
2015.
14. Gooch, Dr Jan W., ed. (2007-01-01).
Deflocculation . Springer New York.
pp. 265–265. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-
30160-0_3313 . ISBN 978-0-387-31021-3.

Further reading
John Gregory (2006), Particles in water:
properties and processes, Taylor &
Francis, ISBN 1-58716-085-4
John C. Crittenden, R. Rhodes Trussell,
David W. Hand, Kerry J. Howe, George
 Tchobanoglous (2012), MWH's water
treatment: principles and design, third
edition, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-
470-40539-0

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