Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Chemical Engineering and Processing:

Process Intensication
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cep

Hybrid hydrocyclone process operating with natural water

Chaiyaporn Puprasert b , Vorasiri Siangsanung a,b , Christelle Guigui a ,
Cline Levecq c , Gilles Hbrard a,
a
Universit de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, INP, Laboratoire dIngnierie des Systmes Biologiques et des Procds (LISBP), 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France; INRA, UMRA792,
LISBP, 31400 Toulouse, France; CNRS, UMR5504, LISBP, 31400 Toulouse, France
b
Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Patumwan Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
c
Anjou Recherche, Chemin de la digue, BP 76, F-78603 Maisons-Laftte cedex, France

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 24 November 2011
Received in revised form 3 July 2012
Accepted 7 July 2012
Available online 16 July 2012
Keywords:
Hybrid process
Water treatment
Hydrocyclone
Coagulation
Flocculation
Natural water

a b s t r a c t
This research deals with a hybrid hydrocyclone process, involving micro-bubbles injection generated by
the dissolved air otation technique; the micro-bubbles allow the aerated ocs formed by coagulation
and occulation to be separated inside the hydrocyclone. The oc separation is induced by centrifugal
force. The lighter phase moves toward the center of the hydrocyclone and the heavier one to the wall.
This hybrid process is intended for natural water or industrial raw water and would be performed as
an industrial water treatment process. For this study, the hybrid hydrocyclone process was performed
under steady state conditions with natural water coming from the river Marne. Efciencies of 61 4% for
turbidity decrease and 77 20% for suspended solids removal were obtained. The separation efciency
between the claried water and the ocs reached 95 10%. This process achieved continuous operation
with 1000 L/h inlet ow. In industrial wastewater treatment, which requires a reliable, compact and
efcient process, this hybrid technology shows strong potential, with a signicant reduction of the plant
footprint.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Removing suspended solids is a common goal of most water
treatment processes. Although ltration has commonly been used
for this purpose, alternative processes, such as hydrocycloning,
have been proposed. Menezes et al. [1] worked on coagulation and
occulation in a dynamic separator based on a swirling motion to
remove silica (500 mg/L) and clay particles (50 mg/L). Their study
used a coagulation process in conjunction with a dynamic separator to separate the solid phase (silica and clay) from the water
phase. Rubio and Rosa [2] used a occulation and otation process
to produce aerated polymeric ocs of an emulsied oil dispersion
followed by separation in a centrifuge cell. Nowadays, no compact
system combines simultaneous coagulation, occulation, otation
and separation in a single device. Most of the previous studies used
only synthetic raw water but never tested real raw water of very
low turbidity. The hybrid hydrocyclone process evaluated during
this study combines coagulation, occulation, otation and hydrocycloning. It was tested using natural waters.

Corresponding author at: Universit de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, INP, Laboratoire

dIngnierie des Systmes Biologiques et des Procds (LISBP), 135 Avenue de
Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France. Tel.: +33 0561559789; fax: +33 0561559760.
E-mail address: gilles.hebrard@insa-toulouse.fr (G. Hbrard).
0255-2701/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2012.07.001

This work was achieved as a continuation of a thesis by Puprasert

[3]. He studied the feasibility of a hybrid process with a hydrocyclone 5 cm in diameter and 50 cm in height. In its pilot process,
three valves were located at the bottom of the system: two lateral
valves for tangential injection, one used for the raw water ow and
the other for the occulants, and one vertical valve for the upward
ow of micro-bubbles. He has shown that centrifuge forces created
by the tangential ow injection lead to strong velocity gradients
at the wall, which promote the coagulation and occulation phenomenon. The presence of micro-bubbles causes the aerated and
the lighter ocs to be dragged by the vortex effect toward the center, where a weaker velocity gradient exists. He has shown that
aerated ocs containing micro-bubbles inside their structure can
be obtained in an unsteady state condition.
Following Pupraserts work, Siangsanun [4] studied the parameters affecting the process in a steady state condition and also
investigated conical and cylindrical hydrocyclone geometries. The
conical geometry hydrocyclone achieved a vortex ow through
the hydrocyclone axis, but there was still no separation. With
these operating conditions, micro bubble coalescence occurred and
reduced the aerated oc production. The process was also inuenced by coagulant and occulant concentration and by the air
fraction. During her PhD, Bamrungsri [5] continued Siangsanuns
investigations; she studied the hydrodynamic characteristics inside
three hydrocyclone geometries and found the optimum operating

C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

Fig. 1. Pilot plant schematic diagram.

conditions for the hybrid process. The velocity proles obtained

with a conical hydrocyclone [6,7] showed the downow of water
along the cyclone axis and its coalescence effect on micro-bubbles.
Moreover, from her PhD conclusions, Siangsanun [8] recommended
increasing the cylindrical hydrocyclone diameter from 5 cm to
10 cm in order to improve the separation efciency. So after several years of experience, the optimum hybrid process conditions
found were: air volume fraction from 0.0082 to 0.0100, 34 mg/L
of occulant polymer, and 250 L/h inlet owrate.
From the reliable results obtained in the previous studies, a
hydrocyclone reactor (Fig. 1(a)), 10 cm in diameter and 1 m in
height, was then selected and designed; its efciency was tested
in the treatment of a continuous ow of raw tap water. The general objective of this project was to evaluate the performance of the
innovative hybrid hydrocylone process applied to natural surface
waters. With the technical support of the Veolia research center
of Annet in France, the hybrid hydrocyclone process was tested
on natural raw water from the river Marne. The operation was
run continuously for at least 1 h to ensure stable operation. A jar
test was integrated to nd the optimum coagulant and occulant
concentrations assuming equal retention times.
The rst part of this paper presents the experimental devices,
the operating conditions tested and the different methods used to
perform the work. The second part deals with the results obtained
on natural water with the jar test and the hybrid hydrocyclone process, in terms of turbidity and suspended solids removal efciency.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Pilot plant description
The pilot plant presented in Fig. 1(a) was designed for treating
the natural water from the river Marne in France. The four parts
contributing to the process are described below.

2.1.1. Coagulation
The coagulation process used aluminum sulfate WAC HB in
liquid form and a Fluidcontrol static mixer (PMS15-4-316LDIN2576, IMP 3419), as shown in Fig. 1(a). The raw water was
pumped through the static mixer at 1000 L/h in order to obtain
the best shear stress to perform the initial occulation. Meanwhile,
the coagulant solution was injected into the system before the raw
water passed the static mixer. The 35-m-long tube of diameter

2.54 cm provided 1 min of retention time before the ocs entered

the hydrocyclone reactor, in order to ensure the start of oc growth.
2.1.2. Flocculation
The occulant solution was prepared with anionic polymer
AN905, which was injected directly into the bottom of the hydrocyclone at a ow rate calculated to give the required concentration
(0.10.5 mg/L). This step was expected to start the occulation process, and the retention time inside the hydrocyclone was 30 s (with
1000 L/h).
2.1.3. Micro-bubbles generation
The air-saturated water or bubble generation system used the
dissolved air otation (DAF) technique. It is accomplished in a saturation tank with the air at 45 bars pressure and the water at
4.3 bars. The retention time was set at around 10 min to ensure
that the air would dissolve in the water. The inlet aperture was
installed vertically underneath the hydrocyclone and close to the
wall. The diaphragm relief valve decreased the pressure, allowing
the air dissolved in the water to form micro-bubbles entering the
hydrocyclone. A mean bubble size of 70 m was determined using
a laser granulometer (Malvern Spraytech). Thus, the micro-ocs
produced in the coagulation and occulation process contained
embedded micro-bubbles. We call them aerated ocs. The ow
meter was installed before the releasing valve to measure the airsaturated water ow rate in order to compare the ow ratio of the
conventional otation process to that of the hybrid process.
2.1.4. Hydrocyclone reactor
The hydrocyclone reactor used in this study was 1000 mm high
and 100 mm in diameter. It was made of transparent acrylic resin so
that the phenomena inside the reactor could be observed. The oc
growth and separation process was expected to occur inside the
reactor. In the lower part, the ow was injected tangentially to the
hydrocyclone wall at a rate of 1000 L/h corresponding to an outlet
velocity of 3.54 m/s, causing vortex ow. Only one tangential inlet,
10 mm in diameter, is used for raw water and coagulant injection,
and one vertical inlet, which is designed for the air-saturated water
injection as shown in Fig. 2. A central vertical tube was placed to
drain the system. The top part was designed for sample collection.
In the central zone, the efuent water or oc sludge swirled and
drained out from the two upper horizontal tubes, while the claried
water drained out from two horizontal tubes below the oc efuent.

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C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

Table 2
Jar test experimental conditions with various raw water turbidity values.

Fig. 2. Hydrocyclone reactor, front, upper and lateral view.

Varied parameter

Experimental value

Raw water turbidity

Coagulant concentration
Flocculant concentration
Flocculation stage time

5.68, 6.13, 6.17, 10.05, 15.60 NTU

28, 30, 40, 50, 60 mg/L
0.1, 0.5 mg/L
30 s, 1 min, 15 min (45 rpm)

a occulator (FLOCUMATIC P, SELECTA, maximum mixing speed

210 rpm, round beakers volume: 1 L). The rapid mixing time for the
coagulation process was 1 min. It was equal to the rapid mixing time
in the hydrocyclone static mixer and the retention time in the 35m-long tube with 1000 L/h inlet ow rate. The jar test impeller rate
was maintained at 160 rpm for the rapid mixing time. The jar test
slow mixing time was varied considering the experimental retention time of the hydrocyclone (30 s, 1 min, 15 min). The speed was
maintained at 45 rpm. The sedimentation time was 10 min, after
which the supernatants were collected for analysis.
Table 2 illustrates the experimental steps used for testing the
coagulant concentration effect and the inuence of the occulation time. The parameters that were varied are listed with their
corresponding values. The coagulant concentrations are calculated
considering the total molecular weight of the coagulant. The lowest
mixing time was chosen to be 30 s because the hydrocyclone reactor has 30 s of retention time. Then, 1 min was used to analyze the
inuence of the slow mixing time. The conventional occulation
contact time was 15 min.

2.2. Experiments
The study worked with natural water from the river Marne. The
experiments were performed during two summer months at the
Veolia research center of Annet in France. The Marne water quality
during the entire period was quite good with very low turbidity
ranging between 5 and 15 NTU, a pH ranging between 7.9 and 8.31
and a temperature close to 22 C. Each assay with the hybrid hydrocyclone lasted 1 h and each one was triplicated for the different
parameters under test reported in Table 1. The jar test helped to
characterize and dene the best operating conditions, and the ow
characterization evaluated the hydrodynamic conditions suited to
operation with natural water. Each step is described in detail below.
2.2.1. The jar test experiment
This jar test approach was a preliminary study for the hybrid
process to predict the coagulation and occulation that could occur
in the hybrid process. However, in a jar test, the micro-bubbles are
not taken into account. The phenomenon would not be exactly the
same, but it is hypothesized that the jar test study is efcient for
determining suitable coagulant and occulant concentrations for
the hybrid hydrocyclone process.
The jar test was performed in order to study the conditions that
could be expected to exist in the hydrocyclone, to nd the optimum
coagulation and occulation concentration, and to test the effect of
coagulation and occulation time. The tests were conducted using
Table 1
Parameters under test for the hybrid process study with Marne river water.
Experimental steps

Parameters studied

1. Jar test

- Raw water turbidity coagulant concentration

- Flocculant concentration
- Flocculation time
- Vortex ow intensity and micro bubble size
- Flow partition between center and wall zone
- Coagulant concentration
- Flocculant concentration
- Air-saturated water ow rate

2. Hybrid process on
Marne river water

2.2.2. Vortex ow intensity, micro bubble size, and ow partition

in the hydrocyclone reactor
It was important to observe the vortex ow needed for efcient separation within the hydrocyclone process. Each operating
condition was tested with tap water to visually control the vortex
presence and intensity at the top of the hydrocyclone. Moreover,
the injection of micro-bubbles from the DAF system was tested to
nd the optimum air-saturated water ow, required in the hybrid
hydrocyclone to obtain aerated ocs without generation of coalescence phenomena. Then, the air-saturated water ow was varied:
50, 100, 150 and 200 L/h in order to observe whether a micro bubble
coalescence phenomenon was induced by a downward owstream
appearing in the central area of the hydrocyclone, as reported by
Bamrungsri [5] in the conical hydrocyclone. Flow partition between
the central and wall zones was tested by modifying the diameter
and the position of the upper water outlet tube.
2.2.3. Hybrid hydrocyclone process with Marne river water
The anionic occulant polymer AN905 was injected directly at
the hydrocyclone inlet. The retention time inside the reactor was
30 s (at 1000 L/h inlet ow rate), which is the retention time for
the occulation process. Table 3 reports the experimental conditions that were varied and controlled to determine the treatment
efciency of the hybrid process on the natural water. Aluminum
Table 3
Operating conditions tested in hybrid process performed with natural water.
Parameter varied

Experimental values

Raw water turbidity

Coagulant concentration
Flocculant concentration
Air-saturated water ow rate
(Air fraction)

5.50, 5.80, 6.25, 6.30, 6.31, 6.52, 8.46 NTU

30, 70 mg/L
0.1, 0.5 mg/L
50, 100, 200 L/h
(0.0030, 0.0058, 0.0106)

Parameter controlled

Experimental values

Raw water ow rate

Operating time

1000 L/h
1h

C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

Non Filtered% Optical Densitydecreasewith 0.1 ppm

polymer

% Turbidity removal with 0.1 ppm polymerconcentration

10

% Optical Density
decrease

70

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

removal

% Turbidity

11

60
50
40
30
20
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Coagulant concentration (mg/L)

30 seconds

1 minute

15 minutes

The turbidity removal with 0.1 ppm polymer

concentration

0
0

10

20
30
40
50
60
Coagulant concentration (mg/L)
30 seconds

1 minute

70

15 minutes

Non filtered optical density removal with 0.1 ppm

polymer

Fig. 3. Jar test turbidity and optical density removals with 0.1 ppm polymer at different occulation times.

sulfate WAC HB was used as a coagulant. Two doses were selected

on the preliminary jar testing. The lower concentration (30 mg/L)
was selected because it achieved coagulation in jar test. The higher
value of concentration was 70 mg/L, chosen because it provided
the highest percentage of turbidity decrease in the jar test and was
sufciently different from 30 mg/L to distinguish the effect of the
concentration parameter on treatment efciency. The occulant
polymer concentration was kept unvaried at 0.1 mg/L or 0.5 mg/L
as in the jar test. In each experiment, three samples were taken
during the continuous hybrid process operation. Fig. 1(b) presents
the different outlet positions where the sampling was performed.
The efuent water was sampled at 15 min, 30 min and 50 min during 1 h of operation. The claried water was sampled from the wall
zone and the turbid water was sampled from the central zone. Each
sample was analyzed with three measurements: the turbidity, the
suspended solid concentration and the UV 254 nm absorbance.
2.3. Analysis method
Turbidity, suspended solids and absorbance were analyzed on
inlet and outlet water samples in order to evaluate the performance
of the hybrid hydrocyclone process.
2.3.1. Turbidity and suspended solids (SSs) measurement
The turbidity was measured with a turbidity meter (HACH
2100N IS TURBIDIMETER). The suspended solid concentration was
analyzed by the method of drying at 103105 C: 100 mL of sample were ltered on 0.45 m lter paper (PALL LIFE SCIENCES, LE
TUFFRYN 47 mm diameter). The lter papers were then dried in
the oven for 2 h and the solid weight measured with an accurate
balance (0.1 mg).
2.3.2. UV-254-nm absorbance (ltered optical density)
The UV-254-nm absorbance was used to indicate the reduction
in dissolved organic matter provided by the coagulation process in
the hybrid process. The samples were ltered on the 0.45 m lter
paper and the ltered water was analyzed for dissolved organic
matter. A 5 cm3 cell was lled with the ltered water and the
UV-254-nm absorbance was measured with a UV-254-nm spectrometer (HACH LANGE DR5000).
2.3.3. Efciencies
The performance of the hybrid hydrocyclone process with
respect to water quality was assessed by calculating the reductions
(as %) in UVA, turbidity and suspended solids observed between

the raw waters and the efuent collected at the wall zone. The performance of the hybrid hydrocyclone with respect to its ability to
reduce suspended solids was evaluated by calculating the reduction
(as %) in turbidity and suspended solids between the wall and aerated zones (central zone). This was done in order to account for the
addition of coagulant/occulation within the treatment process. To
calculate the suspended solids reductions, the ow rate partition
ratio (30:70) was considered.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Identication of proper operating conditions
3.1.1. Coagulation and occulation
The jar test experiment was carried out setting the coagulation and occulation times equal to the conditions that occur in
a hydrocyclone reactor. The coagulation process was followed by
the UV 254 nm absorbance at 1 min of coagulation mixing. For the
occulation process, the experiment was accomplished by varying the occulation time. Result examples are reported in Fig. 3(a)
and (b) for turbidity and absorbant removals, respectively (occulant 0.1 mg/L). It showed that 30 s of occulation could remove
80% of the turbidity (coagulant 50 mg/L). Moreover, increasing the
coagulant and occulant concentration up to 50 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L,
respectively, led to higher turbidity and organic matter removals. In
order to explain the unexpected drop observed in Fig. 3 at 60 mg/L,
it is important to mention that during the experiments conducted
on the water quality of La Marne river, the inlet raw water turbidity
could daily change. For example, with the jar test results reported in
Fig. 3(a) and (b), the raw water turbidity for 50 mg/L coagulant concentration condition was 15.6 NTU, while it was 5.7 NTU at 60 mg/L.
Consequently, the lower raw water turbidity was more difcult
to agglomerate and form the oc even though the coagulant concentration was higher [10]. However, others jar test experiments
performed with a constant water quality showed that an optimum
coagulant concentration was obtained at 70 mg/L.
In any case, this part of the study indicated that 1 min of coagulation stage and 30 s of occulation stage could remove the turbidity
and the organic matter if suitable coagulant and occulant concentrations were used; it suggested that it could work in the hybrid
hydrocyclone process.
3.1.2. Flotation and ow partition inside the hydrocyclone
The optimum ow rate of the air-saturated water was 100 L/h,
which was 10% of the raw inlet ow rate. The air-saturated water

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C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

Fig. 4. Percentage decreases of ltered UV absorbance at center and wall zones with
0.1 mg/L occulant and for different coagulant concentrations.

Fig. 5. Percentage separation of turbidity and suspended solids between claried

water and raw water with 0.1 mg/L occulant and for different coagulant concentrations.

3.2. Performance on surface water

Fig. 5 reports the percentage reduction of turbidity and the suspended solids removal for the two coagulant concentrations tested
and 0.1 mg/L as occulant concentration. The percentage reduction
reported in Fig. 5 considered the water treatment process by comparing claried water with the raw inlet water. It can be seen that
70 mg/L coagulant concentration gives high decrease of turbidity
and suspended solids removal (61 4% and 77 20%, respectively).
Note that, for a coagulant concentration of 30 mg/L, the suspended
solids experimental error is very important (more than 50%), and it
can lead to positive or negative values of % removal close to zero. So
we can assume that small removal efciency occurs for suspended
solid particles. At this low concentration, two parameters can justify this high uncertainty: the raw water inlet had low turbidity
(less than 10 NTU) and only 100 mL of sample was used to analyze
suspended solids in this study, which was not enough for good accuracy at low coagulant concentration with the ltration method. It
would be advisable to increase the volume of the sample in future
work to achieve greater accuracy on the mass of suspended solids
in the raw water.
Fig. 6 reports the turbidity and suspended solids separation
efciency measured for the two coagulant concentrations under
test with a constant occulant concentration of 0.1 mg/L. Considering the separation performed by the hybrid process described in
Fig. 1(b), the oc concentration measured in water samples from
the central zone is compared with that related to the wall zone. Separation efciencies for turbidity and suspended solids were each
calculated as the difference between the center zone and the wall
zone over the center zone. It can be seen from the measured turbidity that the separation phenomena occurred with these two
coagulant concentrations. With 70 mg/L coagulant concentration,

3.2.1. Inuence of the coagulant concentration on hybrid process

efciencies
Fig. 4 reports the percentage decrease of UV-254-nm absorbance
with respect to natural water for the two coagulant concentrations
under test, with 0.1 mg/L as occulant concentration, for the central
zone and the wall zone. The results obtained show that a decrease
of UV-254-nm absorbance occured in both zones and at all concentrations, which implies that the coagulation process occurred
within the hybrid process and was able to reduce the amount of
dissolved organic matter in the water. Increasing the coagulant
concentration increased the coagulation process slightly in terms
of the UV absorbance. The decrease of UV-254-nm absorbance
ranged between 25 and 35% in this study, which corresponded to
the results of the jar test. Taking into account the relatively good
standard errors of the experiments (1% and 2%), it could be concluded that the hybrid process performed with these two coagulant
concentrations achieved the desired coagulation.

Fig. 6. Percentage separation efciency for two coagulant concentrations (at

0.1 mg/L constant occulant concentration).

from the pilot system could function continuously during 1 h of

operation. All the ow rates gave micro-bubbles inside the hydrocyclone and there was no micro bubble coalescence. The vortex ow
appeared at the top of the reactor as it depended on the raw water
inlet ow rate (1000 L/h). From this observation, 100 L/h of pressurized ow rate gave a large quantity of micro-bubbles and a smaller
bubble size than 50 L/h, and the water was observed to look whiter.
The higher ow rates (150 L/h and 200 L/h) induced unacceptable
levels of uctuations, although the coagulation and occulation
performances were not impacted. All the following data presented
in Sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 were obtained with an inlet ow rate of
1000 L/h and a pressurized ow rate of 100 L/h.
Before working with the hybrid process, the throughput ratio
between the center zone and the wall zone has to be considered.
From the water treatment point of view, it is important to maximize the throughput ratio between the wall zone (clear water) and
the center one (ocs sludge). In the hybrid process, there are two
parameters that can affect the throughput ratio. The rst one is the
level difference existing between the outow wall zone and the
outow center zone. The higher the upper central weir, the greater
will be the ratio. The second parameter is the outlet tube internal
diameter; however in our experiments we used a constant 50 mm
diameter. The results of pre-experiments where the level difference
was varying showed a maximum ratio of 70:30, with a difference
of 5 cm between the outow wall zone and the center; this was
the maximum ratio that the hybrid process could achieve and we
applied it to any operating conditions.

C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

13

% Turbidity decrease

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1 mg/L

0.2 mg/L

0.5 mg/L

Flocculant concentration
Fig. 7. Percentage turbidity decrease with different occulant concentrations (at
constant coagulant concentration 70 mg/L).

separation is obviously good: 95 10% separation efciency for

suspended solids and 61 6% separation efciency for turbidity.
This result for separation is very satisfactory in continuous operation. The hybrid process succeeded in creating aerated ocs that
were transported to the hydrocyclone axis where velocity gradients
are weaker. The claried water from the 70 mg/L coagulant condition presented a constant turbidity efuent (3.30 NTU obtained at
the wall zone during 1 h), since the sample had been collected at
three different times (15 min, 30 min and 55 min). It also indicated
that this hybrid process was able to operate continuously, which
is very important if the process is to be developed at the industrial
level.
3.2.2. Inuence of the occulant concentration in the hybrid
process
Fig. 7 reports the turbidity decrease versus the occulant concentration for a constant coagulant concentration of 70 mg/L. From
Fig. 7, it clearly appears that polymer occulant concentration plays
an important role in the water treatment process. The percentage turbidity decrease is highest with 0.1 mg/L polymer (61 4%).
The polymer concentrations used in this experiment were 0.1, 0.2
and 0.5 mg/L. They were high concentrations compared to those in
conventional water treatment processes. From the results, it can
be seen that 0.1 mg/L occulant gave better performance in the
hybrid process than the other concentrations, even though the 0.2
and 0.5 mg/L concentrations were expected to perform better. This
phenomenon can be explained in two ways. Firstly, using an overdose of polymer can cause the restabilization mechanism to operate
because many polymer molecules link with the same colloid particle (Metcalf and Eddy [9]). Secondly, 30 s of occulation mixing
time in the hybrid process was not enough to achieve maximum
polymer performance. There was no signicant difference when
the polymer occulant dosage was increased.
Fig. 8 reports the separation efciency in turbidity and suspended solids measured for three occulant concentrations tested
at a constant coagulant concentration of 70 mg/L. As shown in Fig. 8,
the polymer occulant concentration effect is not simple to interpret. The separation efciency on suspended solids is very high
(95 10%) with 0.1 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L, but the percentage separation efciency on suspended solids at 0.5 mg/L polymer was in
sharp contrast with the percentage turbidity removal. This could
be due to the turbidity of the occulant itself, which increases with
concentration and can affect strongly the efciency values, particularly when the difference between the center and the wall is very
weak. However, the results obtained on suspended solids removal
are very satisfactory, as they certify the separation phenomenon
occurring in the hybrid process during continuous operation.

Fig. 8. Percentage separation of turbidity and suspended solids between center and
wall zone (at constant coagulant concentration of 70 mg/L).

As observed from the results for the previous conditions

(70 mg/L coagulant concentration, 0.1 mg/L polymer concentration
and 100 L/h air-saturated water ow rate), it was remarkable that
there was a separation in the continuous operation, which yielded
more satisfactory results than the other operations.
3.2.3. Inuence of the air-saturated water ow rate on the hybrid
process
This part of the study tested the effect of the air-saturated water
(air fraction) variation on the hybrid process efciency. The pressurized air/water ow rate was chosen at three values, 50, 100 and
200 L/h pressurized water, i.e. 0.0030, 0.0058 and 0.0106 air fraction, respectively. Fig. 9 reports the percentage reduction and the
separation efciency of turbidity and suspended solids removal for
three air-saturated water ow rates tested with the best coagulant
and occulation concentrations determined previously (70 mg/L
coagulant concentration and 0.1 mg/L polymer concentration).
As reported in Fig. 9, no reduction in turbidity or suspended
solids was observed with the 50 L/h air-saturated water ow rate
(0.0030 air fraction), but percentage reductions were observed
with the other two conditions. All three operating conditions used

Fig. 9. Percentage reduction and separation efciency with various air-saturated

water ow rates.

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C. Puprasert et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 61 (2012) 815

the same occulant polymer (0.1 mg/L), indicating that not only
the occulant polymer but also the air-saturated water ow rate
plays an important role in the occulation process. The 50 L/h airsaturated water ow rate did not produce aerated ocs that could
be separated by the vortex ow.
The 100 L/h air-saturated water ow gave excellent percentage turbidity reduction and suspended solids removal (61 4%
and 77 20%, respectively), while 200 L/h led to 48 4% turbidity
decrease and 58 20% suspended solids removal. The hybrid process achieved good water treatment and was able to remove the
oc particles in the water.
Varying the pressurized air ow rate affected the separation
efciency in the hybrid process as shown in Fig. 9. These conditions show that differences in turbidity and suspended solids exist
between the wall zone and the central zone. This means that the
idea of creating aerated ocs that can be separated by the vortex
ow inside the hydrocyclone is valid. The reproducibility of the turbidity values implies stable operation, as the samples were taken
at different times during 1 h of operation.
The 50 L/h air-saturated water ow rate gave 15 6% separation
efciency on turbidity and 27 10% for suspended solids, while
there was no percentage reduction at this ow rate. Apparently,
this low air-saturated water ow rate could not produce enough
micro-bubbles to support the separation process in the sense of
creating aerated ocs.
In contrast, the 200 L/h air-saturated water ow rate, i.e. 20% of
the raw water ow rate, provided the proper separation conditions,
i.e. thickening in the central zone and clarifying in the wall zone. It
resulted in 55 6% separation efciency on turbidity and 83 10%
separation efciency on suspended solids.
The 100 L/h pressurized air/water ow rate produced 61 6%
separation efciency in turbidity and 95 10% separation efciency
on suspended solids. It was found that a higher air-saturated water
ow rate (200 L/h) gave poorer results than 100 L/h. This shows that
there is a certain optimum pressurized air ow rate that leads to
a good embedding mechanism between the micro bubble and the
oc.
Additionally, the ow rate ratio of 1000 L/h of treated water to
100 L/h of air-saturated water was satisfactory because the 1:10
ratio of air-saturated to raw water ow rate does not exceed the
ratio corresponding to the classical otation process. In conventional DAF, the typical proportion of air-saturated water in treated
water is 1550% (0.150.50 air fraction) and operating pressures
can vary in the range of 37 bars (Monod [10]; Kiuru and Vahala
[11]). This is an advantage in the hybrid process from the economics point of view. Another advantage of the hybrid process is
the retention time: 1 min and 30 s. It shows that the process is very
compact compared to conventional water treatment coagulation,
occulation and separation, which takes at least 30 min.
Overall, in experiments performed with natural water from the
river Marne, the application of the hybrid process with coagulation, occulation and otation performed in a single hydrocyclone
contactor, was successful. The aerated ocs occurring in the process
had a low mass density and could improve separation by the hydrocyclone mechanism. The minimum outlet water turbidity obtained
from continuous operation of the hybrid process reached 3.30 NTU.
This value is successful if we consider our initial objective of hybrid
process validation in continuous operation; however, it is perhaps
still not low enough to justify industrial hybrid hydrocyclone development.
The difculty of this process was to nd the optimum coagulant
and occulant concentrations, the optimum air fraction and also
the best hydrodynamics inside the system. The optimum oc size is
necessary to produce aerated ocs. Then, the aerated oc should be
able to rise and be separated by the vortex ow inside the hydrocyclone. This cannot happen if ocs are large or heavy. The occulant

polymer concentration used in this study was high (0.10.5 mg/L).

It was imposed by the small retention time for the occulation
process. To develop the hybrid process using lower polymer concentrations, the hydrocyclone geometry should be reconsidered in
order to increase the retention time for the occulation stage.
It is also important to note that the raw water tested in this study
(river Marne water) contained a low concentration of suspended
solids and its turbidity was very low. If raw water containing
more suspended solids with higher turbidity were considered, the
obtained percentage reduction and removal efciencies in suspended solids and turbidity could be higher. Moreover, pollutants
that are more hydrophobic and less heavy (oil pollution for example) could show improved separation, with special ocs dense in
micro-bubbles and thus lighter.
4. Conclusions
The experiments performed with natural water from the river
Marne successfully demonstrated the idea of the hybrid process:
coagulation, occulation and otation performed in a single hydrocyclone contactor. The hybrid process was successfully developed
in terms of creating and separating aerated ocs. The minimum outlet water turbidity obtained in continuous operation of the hybrid
process was 3.30 NTU (from 8.46 NTU in raw water), which signies 61 4% turbidity removal, 77 20% suspended solids decrease
and 95 10% suspended solids separation efciency. The ratio of
efuent ow in the wall zone to that in the central zone (claried
water to concentrated oc) was 70:30. These results are satisfactory
with respect to the hybrid process but they remain scale dependent.
A nal scale-up will be required before the hybrid process can be
applied in the eld of industrial tap water treatment. In any case, we
have demonstrated in this work that the hybrid hydrocyclone can
work with natural surface water under steady state conditions. The
range of operating conditions in this study were 1000 L/h raw water
inlet ow rate, 70 mg/L coagulant WAC HB, 0.10.2 mg/L anionic
polymer occulant AN905, 100 L/h pressurized air-saturated water
ow rate (1020% of the raw water) and 0.00550.0104 air fraction.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support given
by the French Ministry of Higher Education and the Thai Ministry of Higher Education, via the Franco-Thai Cooperation Program
in Higher Education and Research. They gratefully acknowledge
nancial and technical support from the Veolia research center of
Annet, France.
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