What is Flocculation?

Flocculation is the process whereby smaller particles (inorganic and organic), water-stable soil aggregates, or flocs aggregate to form larger particles (flocs) in a flowing medium. The formation of flocs is a complicated process that is driven by a combination of mechanisms, physical (e.g., turbulence), chemical (e.g., ionic concentration), and biological (bacterial populations and extracellular polymeric material).

The flocculation process is significant for sediment and contaminant transport, because it alters the hydrodynamic characteristics of suspended sediment: the effective particle sizes, shapes, porosity, density, water content, and compositional matrices of flocs differ significantly from those of the traditionally assumed primary particles. Flocculation also alters the chemical and biological behavior of sediment in terms of how it interacts with contaminants and the biological community and how it alters or degrades the contaminants or nutrients assimilated within or around the floc.

AquaKLEAR with Hydropath internationally patented technology creates a continuous flocculation effect by charging suspended particles, which encourages the creation of floc.  The floc is allows for these larger particles to be filtered more easily, and filter backwashing is accomplished in a significantly reduced amount of time.  The floc stays closer to the surface of the filter medium, instead of deeply imbedding within it, thus reducing the amount of time to conduct a backwash, and the frequency intervals are extended significantly.