Evaluación de los procesos de coagulación y floculación en la planta de tratamiento de agua potable de El Cebollar

Abstract

This project was developed in the Treatment Plant "El Cebollar" Drinking Water (PTAP). Its purpose was to evaluate the hydraulic conditions, optimal doses, efficiency of the coagulation and flocculation processes. The hydraulic evaluation allowed obtaining the gradients of speed and retention times of both coagulation and flocculation, which were necessary to apply them in the jar tests. The results were obtained with the similar conditions of the PTAP. Jar tests were carried out from March to August 2019 in order to obtain the optimal dose of aluminum sulfate (SA) and cationic polymer (PC) based on turbidity parameters (TURB), apparent color (CA) and pH, which were applied to flows of 1000, 950 and 800 l / s of raw water. The jar test results were used to perform the dosing and efficiency curves for Type A Aluminum Sulfate (SAGA), Type B Aluminum Sulfate (SAGB) and PC. Using SAGA in the jar tests, an average removal percentage of TURB (96.11%) and CA (98.60%) was obtained; when SAGB was used, an average removal percentage of TURB (95.65%) and CA (97.82%) was obtained. For both cases the pH had variability within the bibliographic range. On the other hand, when applying the coagulant together with the flocculant, a 5% more of the removal percentages were obtained than when supplying only SA. Moreover, it was determined that the PC has a similar behavior by being used with the two coagulants regarding the percentage removal TURB , CA and pH variation. The dose of SAGA used was lower compared to SAGB. The results that were obtained will serve to improve the purification of water in the analyzed processes. In addition, it will improve the efficiency in the dosing of the coagulant and flocculant, and consequently, it will generate the reduction of the costs for the purchase of chemicals.