Current density and residence time in the electrocoagulation process and its influence on Fe2+ reduction [Densidad de corriente y tiempo de residencia en el proceso de electrocoagulación y su influencia en la reducción de Fe+2]

Abstract

The present research work had as study variables the current density of 20, 40 and 80 mA/cm2 and residence times of 10, 20, 40 and 60 minutes, within these evaluation parameters values were taken of pH, conductivity and Fe2+ removal percentage before and after the electrocoagulation process of artisanal acid mine drainage samples (AMD), the amount of AMD sample per test was 350 mL per test, from the results obtained it could be observed that For the current density of 80 mA/cm2 and a time of 40 minutes, the highest percentage of removal was obtained (76.20%), likewise a minimum percentage of removal of 17.97% was obtained at 20 mA/cm2; The removal percentages are attributed to the effect of the current density of the electrocoagulation process, which allows increasing the initial pH values of the effluent, which in turn allows the formation of precipitates and co-precipitates, in this case of Fe2+.