Decolorization of Molasses Yeast Wastewater by Combined Lead Acetate and Polymeric Flocculants

Molasses yeast wastewater was generated during yeast fermentation based on molasses. There was little efficient method to remove the pigments in wastewater. This research found that combination of lead acetate and organic flocculant had flocculation ability on melanoidins. Lead acetate mainly removed pigments which absorbed around 475 nm and organic flocculant mainly enhanced working on the 610 nm and 410 nm pigments. Response surface analysis gave the optimum parameters as follows,original p H of 10, temperature of 25 ℃, lead acetate concentration of 25 g / L,Polyacrylamide( PAM) concentration of 10 mg / L. The decolorization of molasses wastewater under optimum conditions reached to 93. 57%. This research conducted a new way for decolorization of molasses wastewater.