Industrial wastewater treatment by electrocoagulation powered by a solar photovoltaic system

Abstract

Textile wastewater is hazardous to the environment due to their high pollution and toxicity. Some non-biodegradable compounds have a significant impact on BOD and COD levels in wastewater bodies. Dyes extracted from wastewater treatment plants that come from textile industry wastewater are carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic. Certain bacteria, fungi, activated carbon, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be used to treat wastewater by using biological processes. There are a lot of inefficiencies and problems associated with these approaches due to higher cost. Therefore, the current study introduces a research work on cloth textile industries’ wastewater using electrocoagulation cell (EC) powered by solar photovoltaic system. Through a new experimental treatment, the effects of current density, electrolysis time, electrode material (Al or Fe), initial wastewater acidity pHo, and settling age on the elimination of total suspended organic and inorganic matters (SS), turbidity (Tur), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) have been investigated. The handling process was efficient when higher current densities and/or long electrolysis, settling periods, and pHo = 7 irrespective of the electrode material were applied. It was found that the most suitable operating conditions to meet requirements of international laws concerning the discharge of public sewer scheme at a reasonable operating charge with current density, electrolysis time, and settling period were 75 Am−2, 45 min, and 45 min, respectively, without pHo adjustment and iron electrodes. Moreover, in the present work, the removal efficiencies achieved for total suspended organic and inorganic matters (SS), turbidity (Tur), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 55%, 82%, and 52%, respectively. The study reveals that the whole electrocoagulation (EC) cell arrangement is simple in design and operation and can be applied to clean the water as per the parameters suggested by the developed countries. It was also found that the used water treatment method was highly efficient and comparatively fast for dye removal from aqueous textile water solutions.