Mineralogy of laterite samples from viet nam and their use as flocculating agents for the removal of clay suspensions

The existence of clay suspended particles is one of main factors increasing turbidity in water. Flocculation is a common technique used to eliminate suspended materials from water. Currently, a variety of flocculating agents have been found as commercial products and applied to purify water. Most of agents works well and bring positive effects on environment. However, the use of some agents has shown problems relating to economic benefits and environment. The treatment cost and environmental safety evoke the increasing interests in not only developing countries but also in developed countries. To solve these problems, many researches have been carried out in the past decades focusing on improving materials for treatment. As a following tendency, the present study aims to understand mineralogy of the latente samples located in different areas in Viet Nam and investigate their use as flocculating agents for clay suspended particle removal. Three laterite samples were collected to use for experiments in this study. The laterite sample collected in Thach That region (1-TT) performed the best flocculation efficiency followed by the laterite sample collected in Hoa Lac region (2-HL). The sample collected in Quynh Tam commune (3-HL) worked less efficiently than the other two samples. Geothite and hematite are considered to be the main components that are responsible for flocculation action. The study also suggested that the presence of clay sized quarts has an adverse effect on flocculation action.