Wastewater treatment using Electrocoagulation process

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Reddy Shekar

The industrial wastewater is highly polluted in nature with the presence of variable characteristics such as oil and grease, excess chloride content, acids and alkaline, total solids etc. Due to this problem, it is not possible to release wastewater into a watercourse or on land. There are many treatment methods are available to remove these pollutants. Electrocoagulation is one of the wastewater treatment method which is easy to apply and cheap in cost.

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Electro means applying an electrical charge to water and coagulation is a process of reducing the strength of pollutants. Copper, graphite, aluminum, zinc are the different electrodes used in this process. In this past decade, most developed countries started to use this process for the treatment of industrial wastewater. This process provides a fast rate of pollutant removal and the chemical additive is not required.

Apparatus required:

1. 2-litre capacity borosilicate glass beaker
2. Electrodes - (Copper or Aluminium material)
3. Single strand wire
4. DC power supply unit
5. Wastewater sample

Methods:

1. Collection of wastewater sample from industry
2. Determination of initial characteristics of industrial wastewater
3. Experimental setup
4. Analysis and Results
5. Conclusion

Project Implementation:

1. Determine the initial characteristics (Total solids, chloride content, etc.) of wastewater sample
2. Fill the 2-litre beaker with wastewater sample collected from the industry.
3. Use two copper or aluminium electrode with dimension 5cm*5cm and 1mm thickness
4. Single stand wire connected to the electrodes to supply the DC current to the system
5. Conduct the experiment with different voltages like 10volts, 20volts and 30volts
6. Change the spacing between the electrodes at different voltages like 2cm,4cm and 6cm.
7. For each voltage at every 20 minutes interval take out the small quantity wastewater from the beaker for analysis purpose.
8. Find out the characteristics of the sample and compare the values with initial characteristics to get the removal efficiency.
9. Find the best voltage and electrolysis time based on the highest removal efficiency values

Benefits:

1. Treats many contaminants.
2. Sludge minimization
3. Capital and Operating cost are less than conventional technologies.
4. Low power required
5. Generally, no chemical additions required.
6. Low maintenance.
7. Provides consistent and reliable results.
8. Best suited for the removal of oil and grease.

Conclusion:

With the help of experimental results, you are now able to compare the Electro-coagulation process with conventional treatment methods to find the most efficient and cheaper treatment technology

Kit required to develop Wastewater treatment using Electrocoagulation process:

• 2-litre capacity borosilicate glass beaker
• Electrodes - (Copper or Aluminium material)
• wires
• DC power supply unit
• Wastewater

Technologies you will learn by working on Wastewater treatment using Electrocoagulation process:

• Wastewater
• Electrocoagulation

Any Questions?