Title
A laboratory study on the behavior of estuarine sediment flocculation as function of salinity, EPS and living algae
Author
Deng, Z. (TU Delft Coastal Engineering; East China Normal University; Guangdong Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower)
He, Qing (East China Normal University)
Manning, Andrew J. (HR Wallingford; University of Hull; University of Plymouth)
Chassagne, C. (TU Delft Environmental Fluid Mechanics) 
Date
2023
Abstract
The interactions between organic and inorganic particles in the context of flocculation is an on-going topic of research. Most current researches do not distinguish between the effects of EPS (produced by microorganisms) and living microorganisms (like algae). In this study, the effect of salinity, EPS and living algae on sediment flocculation are investigated separately. Several types of measurements were performed, which can be divided into the following categories: sediment at different salinities, sediment in the presence of EPS at different salinities, sediment in the presence of living algae at a given salinity. Results show that increasing salinity enhances slightly sediment flocculation. In the presence of EPS there was hardly any flocculation in demi-water, but the flocculation was significant in saline water. The living algae cells were shown to flocculate with themselves and form large flocs. These algae flocs can bind to sediment particles to form larger flocs, both in demi-water and sea water. Size-wise algae-sediment flocs were largest, EPS-sediment flocs came second, and salt-sediment flocs were smallest.
Subject
Algae
EPS
Floc size
Flocculation
Particle size distribution
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4e447d6c-7c54-4651-bae6-50609564a904
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2023.107029
Embargo date
2023-10-03
ISSN
0025-3227
Source
Marine Geology, 459
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2023 Z. Deng, Qing He, Andrew J. Manning, C. Chassagne