Electrocoagulation

Prepared by: Gomez Marineil
BIO189 Bioseparations
The Electrocoagulation process is based on valid scientific principles involving responses of water contaminants to strong electric fields and electrically induced oxidation and reduction reactions. This process is able to take out over 99 percent of some heavy metal cations and also appears to be able to electrocute microorganisms in the water. It is also able to precipitate charged colloids and remove significant amounts of other ions, colloids, and emulsions. *
Introducing an electrical current to induce a destabilization of most suspended particles, bacteria, viruses and cysts, dissolved materials, metals, most hydrocarbons and many organics.
Once destabilized, positively charged ions react with negatively charged particles in the water resulting in floc precipitates that approach a highly stable state.
Because the floc created is highly stable it can then be easily

separated from the water by a number of conventional secondary separation techniques.
Seeding, resulting from the anode reduction of metal ions that become new
centers for larger, stable, insoluble complexes that precipitate as complex

metal ions.
Emulsion Breaking, resulting from the oxygen and hydrogen ions that bond
into the water receptor sites of oil molecules creating a water-insoluble

complex separating water from oil, driller's mud, dyes, inks, etc.
Halogen Complexing, as the metal ions bind themselves to chlorines in a
chlorinated hydrocarbon molecule resulting in a large insoluble complex

separating water from pesticides, herbicides, chlorinated PCBs, etc.
Bleaching by the oxygen ions produced in the reaction chamber oxidizes
dyes, cyanides, bacteria, viruses, biohazards, etc. Electron Flooding of the

water eliminates the polar effect of the water complex, allowing colloidal materials to precipitate and the increase of electrons creates an osmotic pressure that ruptures bacteria, cysts, and viruses.
Oxidation Reduction reactions are forced to their natural end point within the reaction tank which speeds up the natural process of nature that occurs in wet chemistry.
Electrocoagulation Induced pH swings toward neutral.
Harvest protein, fat, and fiber from food processor waste streams.
Recycle water, allowing closed loop systems.

Remove metals, and oil from wastewater. Recondition antifreeze by removing oil, dirt, and metals. Recondition brine chiller water by removing bacteria, fat, etc.
Pretreatment before membrane technologies like reverse osmosis.

Precondition boiler makeup water by removing silica, hardness, TSS, etc. Recondition boiler blow down by removing dissolved solids eliminating the need for boiler chemical treatment.
De-water sewage sludge and stabilize heavy metals in sewage, lowering

freight and allowing sludge to be land applied Condition and polish drinking water Remove chlorine and bacteria before water discharge or reuse
Advantages
Disadvantages
Alternating
pulse current
Xuhui Mao et al. (2008) Eliminates passivation of the electrode
Serge Tchamango, Charles P. Nanseu-Njiki, Emmanuel Ngameni, Dimiter Hadjiev, Andr Darchen Science of the Total Environment
Wastewaters from agro-industries are characterised by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) due to their high level of organic contents The electrocoagulation of the dairy effluents has already been carried out with steel electrodes, leading to a significant removal of the COD
Evaluate
the performances of the
electrocoagulation process in the treatment of dairy effluent

evaluation of the efficiency of the
electrocoagulation process using aluminium
electrodes applied to the treatment of dairy

effluents
Preparation of artificial dairy effluent
Electrocoagulation at room temeprature Aluminum electrodes as anode and cathode; iron electrodes for phosphoric acid solutions Measurement of pH and temperature
Analyis of conductivity, COD and turbidity
For a given amount of milk dissolved in solution, the conductivity is constant and the pH does not vary notably,
During the electrocoagulation of H3PO4 alone these parameters
vary significantly;
The efficiency of the phosphate removal in semi-
skimmed milk solution is 89%, whereas H3PO4 is

almost entirely eliminated by electrocoagulation.
the conductivity increases notably with the quantity of the aluminium sulphate.
the salts contained initially in the tap water and in the milk powder, the aluminium sulphate added into the solution
the pH is observed to decrease with the quantity of aluminium sulphate because the hydrolysis of Al3+ ions releases protons during the formation of the aluminium hydroxide
the quantity of aluminium sulphate needed for the chemical coagulation is 0.414 g, whereas for electrocoagulation, the calculated mass of consumed aluminium is 0.034 g (corresponding to 30 min of electrolysis at 0.2 A);
the quantity of the chemical reagent is thus far higher than what is needed for the electrolytic treatment.
However the number of mol of aluminium necessary for the treatment is
the same in both methods (0.82103mol of aluminium).
the removals of turbidity and nitrogen are identical; the removals of the COD and phosphorus are slightly higher with a treatment by simple coagulation compared to
electrocoagulation;
the efficiency of pollution removal decreases following the
same trend in both processes as :

turbidity>phosphorus>nitrogen>COD.
Electrocoagulation with aluminium anode is a convenient route for the treatment of dairy waste
satisfactory diminution of various parameters is observed:
turbidity, total phosphorus and nitrogen
This process does not eliminate the COD,

removal efficiency is only about 61%. the residual COD of the dairy effluents is probably due to
lactose and some other carbohydrates which were not eliminated
Thank you!

Electrocoagulation

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Electrocoagulation

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Prepared by: Gomez Marineil

Because the floc created is highly stable it can then be easily

centers for larger, stable, insoluble complexes that precipitate as complex

into the water receptor sites of oil molecules creating a water-insoluble

Halogen Complexing, as the metal ions bind themselves to chlorines in a

chlorinated hydrocarbon molecule resulting in a large insoluble complex

Bleaching by the oxygen ions produced in the reaction chamber oxidizes

dyes, cyanides, bacteria, viruses, biohazards, etc. Electron Flooding of the

Electrocoagulation Induced pH swings toward neutral.

Recycle water, allowing closed loop systems.

Pretreatment before membrane technologies like reverse osmosis.

De-water sewage sludge and stabilize heavy metals in sewage, lowering

Xuhui Mao et al. (2008) Eliminates passivation of the electrode

the performances of the

electrocoagulation process in the treatment of dairy effluent

electrocoagulation process using aluminium

electrodes applied to the treatment of dairy

Preparation of artificial dairy effluent

Analyis of conductivity, COD and turbidity

The efficiency of the phosphate removal in semi-

skimmed milk solution is 89%, whereas H3PO4 is

the same in both methods (0.82103mol of aluminium).

the efficiency of pollution removal decreases following the

same trend in both processes as :

turbidity, total phosphorus and nitrogen

This process does not eliminate the COD,

lactose and some other carbohydrates which were not eliminated

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