Removal of Reactive Green 19 dye from synthetic wastewater using electrocoagulation and aluminum electrodes

Textile dyeing is considered to be one of the major industrial sources of high rates of organic and aromatic compounds. Conversely, these compounds have become a significant environmental problem. Many methods have been investigated for color removal from dye-containing wastewater. In this research, the efficiency of the electrocoagulation (EC) process with aluminum electrodes in the removal of Reactive Green 19 (RG-19) dye from synthetic solutions was studied. The experiments were conducted in a batch reactor equipped with 4 aluminum electrodes with a volume of 2 l. Dye concentrations were measured (λmax = 630 nm). The effects of operating parameters, such as voltage, reaction time, initial dye concentration, energy consumption, pH, KCl concentration, and inter-electrode distance, on removal efficiency were investigated. The highest removal efficiency of RG-19 was found to be 33.49, 60.32, 72.43, 93.63, and 94.91 percent for initial voltage of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 v, respectively, in optimum conditions (pH = 11, KCL concentration = 0.005 M, and distance = 1 cm). The removal was effectively reduced to less than 99.88% when the initial dye concentration increased from 25 to 150 mg/l. In addition, by increasing KCl concentration and decreasing electrode distance, removal efficiency increased considerably. Based on the results, EC process by aluminum electrodes is an efficient and suitable method for reactive dye removal from wastewater.