Combination of Electrocoagulation and Electro-Oxidation Processes of Textile Wastewaters Treatment

Abstract

The present paper investigates the electrocoagulation-electrooxidation (EC-EO) process for the treatment of high-strength wastewater textile industry located in Babylon governance -Iraq. This EC-EO process evaluated the efficiency of electrocoagulation in treating contaminants.Textile wastewater such as BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, turbidity, nitrates, sulfate, total phosphates, electrical conductivity, oil and grease and the total phenols by using either Aluminum or (Iron) electrodes set in a bipolar structure or Titanium coated with iridium oxide Ti/IrO2 electrodes arranged in a monopolar outline in the same electrolytic cell. The first set of analyses that examined the best performance of textile wastewater was achieved by using Aluminum and Titanium coated with iridium oxide plates alternated in the electrode pack and operated at a current of 0.6 A during 90 min of treatment with pH adjusted to approximately 6.0. Further analysis showed that, 95% of oil and greases (O&G) were removed, however chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) removal reached 90% and 87%, respectively. Another important finding was that, more than 96 % of soluble phosphate was removed, and the process was effective in removing turbidity (98%) and suspended solids (98%). A total cost of treated textile effluent process under the best conditions involved using an EC - EO process including chemical electrode consumption, and energy was 2.03 USD/m3.

Keywords: Electrocoagulation, Electro-oxidation, Titanium electrode, Textile wastewater, Aluminum electrode.