The Influence of Applied Current Density and Agitation Speed During Electrocoagulation of Textile Wastewater

Abstract

Electrocoagulation has been noticed as a prospective technology in textile industry wastewater treatment due to its high color removal efficiency in a simple and environmental friendly method. In this study, a cylindrical EC reactor was used and equipped with a turbine agitator and Al electrodes as baffles. The EC process was conducted for 120 minutes with a flow rate of 500 mL/minute. The influence of applied current density and agitation speed was investigated. It was found that the theoretical number of ions released into the solution was increased from 49.13 to 85.97 mg/L when the current density was raised from 0.0075 to 0.0132 A/cm 2 . The maximum of contaminant removal was achieved when 70 rpm of agitation speed was used at a current density of 0.0013 A/cm 2 . At the mentioned agitation speed and current density, the TDS, turbidity, and COD removal were 55.6%. 98.12%, and 90.32%, respectively.