Mitigation of cationic polymer toxicity in industrial waters

向环境中排放的水必须符合工业经营许可证中规定的特定环境标准（CCME, 1999）。对于许多从事土地开发的公司来说，通常使用阳离子聚合物的混凝/絮凝处理来去除悬浮的带负电荷的颗粒（如粘土）（总悬浮固体；TSS）。然而，由于残留的聚合物的存在，这可能会产生二次毒性问题，这对水生生物是剧毒的。本研究项目的总体目标是为监管机构提供必要的信息，以批准一种有效的、具有成本效益的方法来改善阳离子聚合物处理过的水的毒性。该工艺的发展将有利于渔业、环境安全以及依赖阳离子聚合物在排放到自然环境之前从废水中去除悬浮沉积物的行业的环保合规。通过与工业合作伙伴Clearflow集团合作，我们开发了一种通过添加中和剂来中和水中过量阳离子聚合物的工艺。中和剂对阳离子聚合物毒性的改善可能受多种因素的影响，包括阳离子聚合物的性质、聚合物的配方、pH、水硬度、腐植酸、溶解有机碳浓度等水质参数。目标是设计一个基于数学的模型，该模型可以被工业使用，以准确预测在排放之前对阳离子污染的市政和工业废水的改善要求。包括消除工业场所阳离子毒性的改进过程，将防止因阳离子聚合物过量而导致鱼类死亡，从而改善环境合规性，并提高公司/政府机构将其处理过的废水排入自然鱼类水域的环境形象。

The release of water to the environment must meet specific environmental standards as set in industry operating permits (CCME, 1999). For many companies in land development, coagulation/flocculation treatment by cationic polymers is often used to remove suspended negatively charged (e.g., clays) particles (Total Suspended Solids; TSS). However, this potentially creates a secondary toxicity issue due to the presence of residual polymer, which is highly toxic to aquatic life. The overarching goal of this research project is to provide the necessary information to regulators required for approvals of an efficient, and cost-effective method for the amelioration of the toxicity of cationic polymer treated waters. The development of this process will benefit fisheries, environmental safety, and environmental compliance for industries that rely on cationic polymers to remove suspended sediments from wastewaters before discharge into natural environments. In collaboration with the industrial partner Clearflow group, we have developed a process to neutralize excess cationic polymers in water by the addition of a neutralizing agent. The amelioration of cationic polymer toxicity by the neutralizing agent is likely is affected by several factors, including the nature of the cationic polymers, the formulation of their polymer, and several parameters of water quality including pH, water hardness and humic acid, and dissolved organic carbon concentration. The goal is to devise a mathematically based model that can be used by industry to accurately predict the amelioration requirements for cationic contaminated municipal and industrial wastewaters before release. Inclusion of an amelioration process to eliminate cationic toxicity in industrial sites would prevent fish kills due to cationic polymer overdosing, thereby improving environmental compliance and raising the environmental profile of the companies/government bodies that dispose of their treated wastewater into natural, fish-bearing waters.