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• Electrokinetic and rheological behavior of treated bentonite suspension were studied. • NADES showed better performance compared to ChCl-LA mixture. • NADES treated suspensions showed pseudoplastic and time-dependent behavior. • Solid-like behavior ( G ' > G ' ' ) was observed in all treated suspensions. • The destabilization degree and rheological behavior were in good agreement. Colloids in wastewater are considered a serious problem due to their stability and separation difficulty. Coagulation/ flocculation processes are the most common for the separation of colloids because of their high-performance efficiency, simplicity, and economical characteristic. Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) are green solvents that proved to be highly effective in the destabilization of colloidal suspensions. In the present study, the influence of choline chloride (ChCl) and lactic acid (LA) based NADES on the rheological behavior of bentonite suspension was investigated. Furthermore, it examines the difference in the rheological behavior of NADES treated suspension with others treated with ChCl-LA mixture (LA and ChCl added one after the other). The rheological behavior are correlated to the destabilization degree of each coagulants through turbidity reduction, zeta potential, particle size distribution, and capillary suction time. The study revealed that while untreated bentonite suspension follows a Newtonian behavior, treated suspensions are non-Newtonian fluids with shear thinning behavior. Furthermore, all treated suspensions showed elastic behavior under moderate to low oscillatory frequencies. The changes in the studied rheological parameters (i.e., initial viscosity, elastic modulus, and Bingham yield stress) were influenced by the concentration in addition to the structure of the selected coagulant. The addition of higher coagulant concentration enhances the elastic properties from two to more than ten times depending on the concentration and coagulant type. At concentration of 6.76 × 10 - 2 M , suspension treated with NADES achieved an initial viscosity of 194 , 110 m P a. s and a yield stress of 2959.3 m P a which indicates the formation of stronger and stiffer flocs. On the other hand, ChCl-LA treated suspension had viscosity and yield stress of 9 and 15 magnitudes lower, respectively. Enhancing the rheological behavior of suspensions is usually attributed to higher destabilization degree, which is desirable for the further treatment processes. By increasing the concentration from 5.9 × 10 - 3 M to 6.76 × 10 - 2 M , turbidity reduction increases from 12 % to 99.9 % with an increase in the floc size from 3.3 μ m to 27.3 μ m for NADES treated suspension. The increase in the destabilization degree was associated with an enhancement in the suspension viscosity by more than two folds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hybrid coagulation-flocculation on the flocculation of bentonite is investigated. • Compared to single PAM, hybrid systems performed exceptionally well. • Hybrid systems were able produce bigger flocs than single systems. In this study, the influence of the hybrid coagulation-flocculation system on the flocculation and shear resistivity of bentonite suspension has been investigated. Two short-chained coagulants, polyamine and polyDADMAC, accompanied with low and high Molecular Weight (Mw) long-chained anionic Polyacrylamide (PAM) flocculants have been used to enhance the size and mechanical properties of the produced flocs. Four characterization techniques were used as evaluation criteria of degree of flocculation including turbidity, zeta potential (ζ), floc size analysis and rheology. Optimum dosages between 5 and 10 mg/L were obtained for flocculants and between 20 and 30 mg/L for coagulants in hybrid systems. Compared to single systems, hybrid systems performed exceptionally well. Removal efficiency of 99% was achieved using hybrid systems producing water with turbidity as low as 1.05 NTU. Although differences were insignificant in the treatment quality, significant improvement was achieved in floc size and rheological behavior. Hybrid systems were able to produce large flocs of more than 400 µm, five times bigger than flocs from the single cationic coagulant systems. Most importantly, rheological testing of produced slurries revealed the remarkable advancement achieved by hybrid systems. Hybrid systems were able to increase the elastic modulus (G′) by more than ten times resulting from the compacted flocs present in the system. Furthermore, resistivity toward shear and oscillations were improved. Ultimately, hybrid systems have surpassed the single cationic systems by achieving slightly better treatment besides producing larger, denser and more resistive flocs. Generally, polyDADMAC performed better than polyamine in hybrid systems. The combination of polyDADMAC with high Mw PAM gave the best separation as well as the largest flocs, while the combination with low Mw PAM resulted in the best rheological properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]