Treatment of Synthetic Wastewater Containing Reactive Red 198 by Electrocoagulation Process

BackgroundandObjectives:Dischargeoftextilecoloredwastewaterindustrieswithoutproviding enough treatment in water bodies, is harmful for human and aquatic organisms and poses serious damagestotheenvironment.Mostofconventionalwastewatertreatmentmethodsdon’thaveenough efficiency to remove textile dyes from colored wastewater; thus in this research the efficiency of electrocoagulation treatment process with aluminum electrodes for treatment of a synthetic wastewater containing C.I. Reactive Red 198 in batch reactor was studied. MaterialandMethods:Theexperimentconductedina Plexiglasreactorwithaworkingvolumeof 2Lthat equipped with 4 aluminum electrodes. The effects of operating parameters such as voltage, timeofreaction,initialdyeconcentrationandinterelectrodedistanceonthecolorremovalefficiency, electrical energy consumption and electrode consumption were investigated. Results:intheoptimumoperationalconditionelectrocoagulation,isabletoremovecolorandCOD as high as 99.1 and 84.3% in aluminum electrode in 75 minutes at 20 volt and 2 cm interelectrode distance,respectively.Underthiscondition,operatingcostwas2986railspercubicmeteroftreated wastewater.Increaseinthe interelectrodedistanceandinitialdyeconcentration,leadtothe decrease in efficiency of dye and COD removal.While as the voltage and time of reaction increased, energy consumption, electrode consumption, final pH and color removal, increased too. Conclusion:electrocoagulation process by aluminum electrode is an efficient and suitable method for reactive dye removal from colored wastewater.