Electrochemical Treatment of Organic and Oily Wastewaters

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the treatability of acrylic fibre applicator oil wastewater from textile processing industry and first extraction stage bleach plant effluent from a pulp and paper industry by electrochemical treatment process. The set of experiments to be performed were found using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) of design expert software. The experimental results were analysed by the design expert software and the electrochemical treatment process was modelled. For the acrylic fibre applicator oil wastewater, stainless steel electrodes were used and the treatment process was optimized for the fixed factors pH, voltage, time and chloride content, and treatment efficiency in terms of COD removal was recorded as response. Statistical modelling and the response maximization gave 5.1 pH, 14.26 V voltage, 9.25 minutes treatment time and 1067mg/l of chloride as optimal parameter values for the maximum COD removal of 77.7%. For the treatment of bleach plant effluent, aluminium, iron and stainless steel electrodes were used. May be due the inability to properly monitor the response, statistical model development and process optimization could be done only for the SS-SS pair of electrodes. Optimum conditions for the maximum colour removal with SS-SS pair of electrodes were found to be 6.25 pH, 8.99 V voltage, and 15.69 minutes treatment time. The maximum colour removal efficiency achieved was 96.6%. Thus above results show that electrochemical treatment can be successfully used for the treatment of acrylic fibre applicator oil wastewater and also for that of the first extraction stage bleach plant effluent.