Recent Advancement of Coagulation–Flocculation and Its Application in Wastewater Treatment

TLDR

Environmental concerns and stricter regulations have driven industries to adopt coagulation–flocculation, a widely used and effective wastewater treatment process. The review critically examines recent coagulation–flocculation studies for industrial wastewaters and proposes future improvements. The review discusses how process parameters affect treatment efficiency. The review identifies key limitations of coagulation–flocculation, including toxic coagulants, toxic sludge, poor removal of heavy metals and emerging contaminants, color increase, ineffective natural coagulants, and scaling challenges.

Abstract

Increasing environmental awareness coupled with more stringent regulation standards has triggered various industries to challenge themselves in seeking appropriate wastewater treatment technologies. Coagulation–flocculation process is regarded as one of the most important and widely used treatment processes of industrial wastewaters due to its simplicity and effectiveness. This paper provides a critical review on recent studies of coagulation–flocculation treatment processes of various industrial wastewaters. The limitations and challenges for the coagulation–flocculation process such as the toxicity and health hazard posed by inorganic coagulants, production of large amount of toxic sludge, ineffectiveness in removing heavy metals and emerging contaminants, increase in effluent color, inefficient pollutant removal using natural coagulants, and complexity of scaling up procedure are presented. In addition, an overview on the influence of process parameters on treatment efficiency is included in this review. Finally, this review concludes with recommendations for improvements and new directions for this long-established process.