Electrocoagulation process for textile wastewater treatment in continuous upflow reactor

This study investigates the influence of operating parameters (current density, detention time and time of electrolysis) on COD and color removals from a simulated basic dyebath effluent using electrocoagulation (EC) with iron electrodes in continuous flow mode. Till today, researchers are mainly focused on use of EC systems in batch processes. Looking to large quantities of wastewater from textile Industry, continuous flow regime may offer a better solution. Firstly, the operational parameters including current density (j), detention time (DT) and time of electrolysis were optimized. Then, total electric work (E) and sacrificial weight of anode were calculated under optimum conditions. The size of electrode plate (5cm*5cm*0.5cm, 124cm) was kept constant for all sets of experiments. Our results indicated that for a solution of 300mg/L basic red dye 5001 B, almost 76% COD and 95% color were removed, when the pH was about 9, the DT was 20 min and the j was 14-17 mA/cm. Pseudo steady-state was achieved after passing 60 minutes of current in the solution. In addition, the result of our study indicates that when the j and DT was increased above optimum level, charge reversal and surface saturation was occur due to the excessive addition of coagulant.