Removal of organic load and suspended solids from water by electrocoagulation method

Electrocoagulation (EC) is an electrochemical technique involving in-situ generation ofcoagulation agents from sacrificial anodes by type of aluminium and iron. In the present study EC hasbeen evaluated as a treatment technology for organic load and suspended solids removal from a realwastewater proceeded from pulp and paper industry, which was characterized by high content of organicload and suspended solids. The efficiency of the electrocoagulation process was assessed by monitoringChemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and suspended solids (s.s.) parameters. Laboratory- scale experimentswere conducted with aluminum anode to assess its efficiency under galvanostatic regime. To establishthe optimum operational parameter selected as current density, the electrolysis was carried out at 50,100 and 200 Am-2. The electrocoagulation process performance was assessed based on the efficiencies ofCOD and s.s. removal correlated with the specific electrical energy consumption. Applying EC processallowed to achieve the COD removal efficiencies ranged between 83.80 and 94.00 % and s.s. removalefficiencies between 87.77 and 95.47 %.