Effect of Electrode Material on the Removal of Industrial Oil and Soap Wastewater Using Electrocoagulation Process

Abstract

Treatment of oil and soap industrial wastewater using aluminum and iron electrode material has been investigated in this study to compare for each electrode, the performance of the electrocoagulation process. The effectiveness of relevant industrial wastewater characteristics such as the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and oil-grease removal effects of major operating parameters such as medium pH value, electrode material, and current density, and running time and energy consumption were studied. All experiments were done in an electrocoagulation cell with an effective volume of 500 mg/ liters. Under the same operating conditions, it was observed that aluminum electrodes have higher efficiency of removal than iron electrodes. COD and O&G removal efficiencies of 94.93%, 90.20% and 27.49%, 13.27% were observed for aluminum and iron electrode in a special case with optimum initial pH value, maximum current density, time, and initial COD concentration equal to 3, 73.33 A/m 2 , 30 min, 19750 mg/l, respectively. The electrode energy consumptions for each electrode material have been calculated to be 1.68, 3.04 KWh/kg COD for Aluminum and iron respectively at 15 volts. It can be concluded that the electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes is efficient for COD and O&G removal from industrial wastewater.

Evaluation of the efficiency of electrocoagulation process in removing cyanide, nitrate, turbidity, and chemical oxygen demand from landfill leachate

“…One of the effective processes in removing various contaminants from leachate is electrocoagulation. Electrocoagulation is an effective and rapid method for the removal of pollutants and toxic compounds from water or wastewater (11)(12)(13). In this process, no coagulant chemical is added to the water and the volume of sludge produced in this technology is less than the one produced by the chemical coagulation method (14)(15)(16).…”