Extracellular organic matters of Chlorella pyrenoidosa: Characteristics, flocculation and self-flocculation enhancement

ABSTRACT

Extracellular organic matters (EOMs) of algae widely threaten public health and ecological environment. Herein, the relationship between the characteristics of EOMs and their flocculation in water treatment is discussed. Two kinds of EOMs, dissolved extracellular organic matter (dEOM) and bound extracellular organic matter (bEOM), extracted from Chlorella pyrenoidosa owned the similar characteristics. Hydrophobic organic matters were dominant in them. The hydrophobic organic matters were basically the aromatic-like substances and humic-like substances. The dEOM and bEOM possessed small molecule organic matters and multifarious functional groups. Hydrophobic property and functional groups of dEOM and bEOM contributed to their bridging and adsorption in flocculation of colloidal particles in water. And the flocs formed by polyaluminum chloride (PAC) assisted with EOMs were larger than those yielded by individual PAC. In situ self-polymerization of diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DMDAAC) and copolymerization of DMDAAC and EOMs improved the self-flocculation of algae in the simulated wastewater.

KEYWORDS:

• Extracellular organic matters
• algae
• characteristic
• flocculation
• self-flocculation

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [author initials], upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any relevant financial or non-financial competing interests.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful for the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Project No. 51608078 and 51808079], the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [Project No. 2017M622970], the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [Project No. KJQN201900841 and KJ160062] and Chongqing Technology and Business University Scientific Research Foundation [Project No. 1756004].