Environmentally benign natural agents in the treatment of water are increasingly gaining interest due to their cost effectiveness, low toxicity and inherently renewable characteristics. In this context the aqueous mucilage of Opuntia ficus-indica (OFI), a species of cactus, was utilized as a bio-coagulant for pre-treatment of OSPW (Oil sands process-affected water) for the first time. Coagulation/ flocculation tests were performed both on model turbid water and OSPW to explore the performance of extracted bio-coagulant on different types of water with varying turbidity. Effect of different operating parameters such as initial turbidity, pH, different salts, storage time and dosages was studied. The bio-coagulant performed extremely well with 98% turbidity removal from OSPW at initial pH of 7 and 8 using 1500 mg/l within 60 min. The active coagulant compound in mucilage of OFI was found to be a combination of pectic polysaccharide, non-polysaccharide and the natural electrolytes especially divalent cations such as Ca⁺² and Mg⁺². Formation of exceptionally thread like large flocs reveals the possibility that mechanism of coagulation by OFI is adsorption facilitated by inter-particle bridging. A comparative study between bio-coagulant and alum was also conducted and it was found that bio-coagulant resulted a compact sludge with less volume compared to alum.

由于其成本效益，低毒性和固有的可再生特性，在水处理中对环境无害的天然制剂日益引起人们的关注。在这种情况下，印度仙人掌的水粘液仙人掌（OFI）是一种生物凝结剂，首次用于OSPW（受油砂处理影响的水）的预处理。在模型浊水和OSPW上均进行了凝结/絮凝测试，以探讨提取的生物凝结剂在不同浊度的不同类型水上的性能。研究了不同操作参数如初始浊度，pH，不同盐，储存时间和剂量的影响。在初始pH为7和8的情况下，在60分钟内使用1500 mg / l的生物凝结剂从OSPW去除98％的浊度时表现非常出色。发现OFI黏液中的活性凝结剂是果胶，非多糖和天然电解质（尤其是二价阳离子，例如Ca ⁺²和Mg ^{+2）的组合。}。像大絮状物一样的异常线的形成揭示了OFI的凝结机制通过颗粒间桥接促进吸附的可能性。还对生物凝结剂和明矾进行了比较研究，发现生物凝结剂产生的污泥比明矾小，体积更小。