Combined Electrocoagulation and Physicochemical Treatment of Cork Boiling Wastewater

Cork boiling wastewater (CBW) is a highly polluted and difficult to treat effluent resultant from the cork manufacturing industry. This study aims evaluate new, reliable, efficient, sustainable process this effluent. paper tested electrocoagulation as pre- post-treatment improve already existing physicochemical treatment in production facility Portugal. In procedures (PC), addition of different volumes coagulant (ferric chloride (III) 40% w/w), neutralizer (sodium hydroxide, 32% flocculant (polyacrylamide, 0.2 g/L) were evaluated. Electrocoagulation (EC) was performed bench-scale reactor, using aluminum stainless-steel electrodes. For EC, initial pH, current density, tension values tested. When used post-treatment, better performances achieved. However, costs increased significantly. Coagulation/flocculation offers viable cheap treatment, achieving removal efficiencies 88.2%, 81.0%, 76.9%, 94.2% for total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD), carbon (TC), nitrogen (TN), soluble (sCOD), respectively. With PC-EC combination, it possible achieve 92.4%, 88.0%, 91.4%, 91.4% tCOD, TC, TN, sCOD, The TN efficiency can translate into great benefits certain discharge conditions should be taken consideration improving sustainability On other hand, when EC pre-treatment, there are no either terms performance or operating costs.