Screening of a Flocculant-Producing Strain and Optimal Conditions for Production of Bioflocculant

Abstract

A bioflocculant-producing strain M-3 with high flocculating activity was isolated from soil by conventional panel lineation and dilution-plate methods. It was preliminarily identified as Aspergillus based on its morphological and physiological characteristics of colony. The single factor experiments were conducted to optimize cultivating factors affecting flocculating activity, the optimal culture conditions were found to be as follows: glucose 10 g/L, glutamate 2 g/L, cultivating time 36 h, cultivating temperature 37 oC, shaking speed 120 r/min, initial pH 10. The strain could produce high effective flocculants with flocculating activity of 98.3% for kaolin clay suspension, which afforded high possibility of its practical use.