What is Flocculation?

I'm pretty sure that all countries treat their sewage to produce tap water.

"Flocculation refers to the separation of a solution." My understanding is that it refers to a process by which small particles - possibly microscopic ones - clump together to form bigger particles. (These larger particles may then precipitate out, or be captured by filters.) It does not - as I understand it - remove solutes from a solution.

@everetra - The reality is that some oil spills clean themselves up, for the very reasons you cite. The water itself acts as a flocculent, constantly scrubbing itself away in the ocean tides.

Also the ocean has its own plankton which eat the oil as well. That doesn’t mean companies shouldn’t act, of course; it just means we have to understand that they are cooperating with nature's own cleaning program.

I wonder if companies use a flocculating agent in treating ocean oil spills. I know that sometimes microorganisms are released into the ocean to consume the spilled oil.

The only problem that I see however is that this kind of treatment does not take place in a controlled environment, as would be the case with a water treatment plant to clean up sewage.

I think the constant tow of currents in the ocean might make it more difficult to perform a clean separation of the oil from the ocean water.

@SkyWhisperer - That’s an extreme example, but can you imagine that most people won’t even drink tap water, knowing where it came from-and despite the fact that it’s been subjected to its own chemical flocculation process.

It’s also been shown that a lot of so-called bottled water is nothing but tap water with a pretty label. Tap water, in my opinion, is not actually as bad as people think.

I think water treatments do the trick and spending money on bottled water is like paying for air.

I understand that flocculation is used to purify drinking water. It still gives me the chills however to think about what the water was like before it was treated, and now that it’s treated I can actually drink it. It’s more psychological revulsion than anything else, because at the chemical level the water is totally pure.

I’ve also heard that some countries like Singapore will use the flocculation process in their sewer treatment, with the result of producing drinking water out of what was once sewage!

Again, it’s more psychological repulsion than anything else, but I couldn’t imagine myself drinking that water knowing where it had come from.

Very interesting.

interesting.