INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENT ELECTRODES IN ELECTROCOAGULATION OF DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Electrocoagulation method with iron/iron, and Cu and Ti/IrO₂ electrodes as cathode and anode were used, to treat the domestic wastewater in batch reactor. The performance of electrocoagulation (EC) process was investigated for phosphorous, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and  reduction.  The  effects  of  the  relevant  key  operating  conditions  such  as  amperage  and  electrolysis  time  were  studied  in  order  to  evaluate  the  performance  of  electrodes.  The result indicates that electrocoagulation is very efficient and was able to achieve phosphorous removal (99.46%), COD removal (56.11%) and  (58.37%) at 0.8A in 60 min in the presence of iron electrode. The  removal by Cu and Ti/IrO₂ electrodes were achieved at 99.82% at 0.8A in 45 min. The results revealed that the ammonium was removed and 2.33 mg/L of nitrate was found with the weak formation of nitrite. Finally the Ti/IrO₂ electrode was not affected by the process. It means that total suspended solids were removed by Fe electrode.