Biopolymer-based flocculants: a review of recent technologies.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Jiang, Xincheng Li, Yisen Tang, Xiaohui Jiang, Junyi He, Qiang Xiong, Zikang Zheng, Huaili
Abstract	Biopolymer-based flocculants have become a potential substitute for inorganic coagulants and synthetic organic flocculants due to their wide natural reserves, environmental friendliness, easy natural degradation, and high material safety. In recent years, with more and more attention to clean technologies, a lot of researches on the modification and application of biopolymer-based flocculants have been carried out. The present paper reviews the latest important information about the base materials of biopolymer-based flocculants, including chitosan, starch, cellulose, and lignin etc. This review also highlights the various modification methods of these base materials according to reaction types in detail. Via the recent researches, the flocculation mechanisms of biopolymer-based flocculants, such as adsorption, bridging, charge neutralization, net trapping, and sweeping, as well as, some other special mechanisms are comprehensively summarized. This paper also focuses on the water treatment conditions, the removal efficiency, and advantages of biopolymer-based flocculants in applications. Further, this review sheds light on the future perspectives of biopolymer-based flocculants, which may make progress in the sources of base materials, modification processes, multi-function, and deepening application researches. We believe that this review can guide the further researches and developments of biopolymer-based flocculants in the future, to develop them with a higher efficiency, a lower cost, more safety, and multi-function for more diversified applications.Graphical abstract
ISSN	09441344
Volume Number	28
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8279699
Issue Number	34
PubMed reference number	34263401
Journal	Environmental Science and Pollution Research International [Environ Sci Pollut Res Int]
e-ISSN	16147499
DOI	10.1007/s11356-021-15299-y
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2021-07-14
Publisher Place	Berlin/Heidelberg
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
Subject Keyword	Biopolymer-based flocculants Flocculation Modification methods Flocculation mechanisms Water treatment
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Chemistry Pollution Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis Medicine