“…Because the structure and strength of flocs produced under various coagulation conditions (e.g., pH and coagulant doses) are inconsistent with each other, it is difficult to evaluate the impact of coagulation on flux or membrane performance (Katsuki et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2000;Wang et al, 2008). Several researchers have reported that the strength and size distribution of flocs produced during the pre-coagulation step strongly affect the flux of the membrane operation (Lee et al, 2003;Park et al, 2006;Bizi, 2008;Zularisam et al, 2009). For the aluminum-salt-based coagulation step, the characteristics of the flocs are dictated by the mechanisms of various hydrolyzing aluminum species (Lin et al, 2008a,b,c).…”