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Treatment of laundry waste-water by electrocoagulation

Article in Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology · August 2011

DOI: 10.1002/jctb.2625

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Research Article
Received: 13 November 2010 Revised: 6 February 2011 Accepted: 3 March 2011 Published online in Wiley Online Library:

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jctb.2625

Treatment of laundry waste-water

by electrocoagulation
Fatemeh Janpoor, Ali Torabian and Vahid Khatibikamal∗

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The present study describes an electrocoagulation process for treating laundry waste-water using aluminum
plates. The effect of various parameters such pH, voltage, hydraulic retention time (HRT), and number of aluminum plates
between the anode and cathode on efficiency of treatment are investigated.

RESULTS: Experimental results showed that by increasing HRT, treatment efficiency increases but beyond 45 min changes are
negligible. Among the results for chemical oxygen demand (COD), phosphorus, detergent, colour and turbidity, the lowest
decrease was found for phosphorus. The larger the HRT, the greater the electrical current needed to achieve constant voltage
and temperature in the system. The pH of the influent is a very significant variable which affects the treatment of laundry
waste-water considerably, the optimal range being 6.0–8.0. In addition, it was found that the pH increases from 8.3 to more
than 10 over the first hour of treatment after which the pH remains relatively constant. Finally, kinetic analysis indicates that
the adsorption system obeys a second-order kinetic model.

CONCLUSION: The aluminum hydroxide generated in the cell decreases the concentration of pollutants in laundry waste-water
to a permissible level. It is concluded that, compared with other treatment processes, electrocoagulation is more effective in
treating laundry waste-water under appropriate conditions.

c 2011 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords: electrocoagulation; laundry waste-water; aluminum plates; hydraulic retention time; adsorption kinetics

INTRODUCTION that the process was not diffusion-controlled. Although surfactants

Waste-water from all laundry sources accounts for approximately can be effectively removed by electrochemical oxidation, the in-
10% of municipal sewer discharges. In addition to high suspended stantaneous current efficiencies are very low, varying from 5–12%.
solids and biological oxygen demand (BOD) loading, the levels of Among the electrochemical technologies, electrocoagulation and
oil and grease, heavy metals and other organics exceed municipal electroflotation may be effective substitutes for conventional co-
discharge standards. Commonly, laundry effluents contain more agulation and flotation6 . Also electrocoagulation/electroflotation
than 1000 ppm suspended solids, 5000 ppm chemical oxygen has been reported to successfully treat different kinds of waste-
demand (COD), 1100 ppm fats, oil and grease (FOG), and 1300 ppm water, containing oil,8 fluoride,9 arsenic,10 dyes,11 – 16 suspended
BOD, in addition to metals and organic solvents such as toluene, particles,17 chromium ions18 and phosphate.19,20
benzene, and perchlorethylene.1 The removal of arsenic by electrocoagulation using a combined
The most widely used methods, such as traditional coagulation, Al–Fe electrode system was investigated by Jewel et al.21
flotation, adsorption, and chemical oxidation or a combination of Observation of the substitution of Fe3+ ions by Al3+ ions in the solid
these are insufficient for laundry waste-water treatment, especially surface indicates an alternative mechanism of arsenic removal
for the simultaneous removal of high content of suspended solids, by these metal hydroxides and oxyhydroxides by providing
surfactants and phosphate, so a new method of treatment is nec- a larger surface area for arsenic adsorption by retarding the
essary. Electrochemical methods for the treatment of waste-water formation of crystalline iron oxides. Research shows that owing
have recently attracted attention due to their safe and environmen- to their amorphous nature the presence of polymeric aluminum
tally friendly nature. They are effective in treating waste-waters hydroxides would provide significantly larger surface areas for
containing several organic and inorganic compounds, including arsenic species adsorption. Merzouk et al.22 reported that two
phenol, dyes, metal ions, cyanide, etc., because various degra- main mechanisms are generally considered in electrocoagulation:
precipitation at pH values lower than 4 and adsorption at higher
dation and removal mechanisms may exist simultaneously in an
electrochemical reactor.2 – 4 In the past, electrochemical oxidation
was usually employed to degrade surfactants in waste-water.5,6
∗
Leu et al.7 reported that linear alkyl sulfonates (LAS) and alkylben- Correspondence to: Vahid Khatibikamal, Department of Civil and Environmen-
zene sulfonates (ABS) could be completely removed by indirect tal Engineering, Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Iran.
E-mail: vahidkhatibi@ut.ac.ir
electrochemical oxidation in conjunction with chemical coagu-
lation. Lissen et al.5 used boron doped diamond and graphite Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate Faculty of
electrodes to degrade two surfactants in dilute solution and found Environment, University of Tehran, Iran

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 www.soci.org F Janpoor, A Torabian, V Khatibikamal

pH values. Adsorption may take place on Al(OH)3 or on the Experimentation

monomeric Al(OH)4 –anion depending on the chemical structure Experiments were conducted in a bipolar batch reactor with
of the pollutant. two aluminum electrodes and a variable number of aluminum
Recently several researchers have investigated the electrolytic plates. At the beginning of the experiment, the electrocoagulation
reduction of laundry waste-water. For example, Ge et al.2 stud- cell was thoroughly washed and rinsed with de-ionized water
ied the performance of an electrocoagulation–electroflotation followed by rinsing with the sample solution, and then a 1.5 L
process in a single reactor using three aluminum plates placed sample was placed in the electrocoagulation cell. At the end
between two titanium electrodes of opposite charge and inves- of each experiment, the solution was filtered through a 0.2 µm
tigated the change of pH during the process, and the effect of membrane filter before determination of the pH, COD, colour,
hydraulic retention time (HRT) and electrical current on the effi- turbidity, detergent and phosphorous content. All experiments
ciency of COD removal. Wang et al.23 evaluated the removal of were repeated twice and the experimental error was below 3%;
COD from a simulated laundry waste-water using electrocoagula- average data are reported.
tion–electroflotation technology and suggested that the rate of
COD removal was significantly influenced by applying ultrasound Analysis
to the electrocoagulation cell. Furthermore, My et al.24 and Chen25 COD, detergent and phosphorus were measured according to
found that there are few advantages for the treatment of laundry Standard Methods.26 Turbidity was recorded on a 2100N IS
waste-water by electrocoagulation compared with other methods. Turbidimeter (Hach). The pH of the waste-water was measured
Energy consumption could be decreased owing to better conduc- with a 720A pH meter (Orion). Colour was determined by dilution
tivity due to the presence of salts, and the reaction conditions and the UV-vis absorption scan (190–350 nm) was obtained with
could be easily controlled by changing the cell current or voltage. a UV-vis spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, Japan).
The fine bubbles and poly-nuclear hydroxy complexes produced
by electrocoagulation were effective in floating and coagulating
the pollutants. As a result, the electrocoagulation system is usually Mechanism of electrocoagulation
designed to operate at high voltage, usually higher than 10 V, to Electrocoagulation involves the processes of electrochemistry,
break down the inhibiting layer. The results in the above articles coagulation and hydrodynamics 27 and involves the creation of
were restricted to evaluation of COD removal efficiencies, and metallic hydroxide flocs in the waste-water by electrodissolution
effects on other pollutants such as detergent, colour and turbidity of soluble anodes, usually iron or aluminum. The electrical current
were not investigated. causes dissolution of the sacrificial metal anode and at appropriate
The purpose of this work was to investigate the removal pH values the resulting metal ions form a wide range of coagulated
efficiency of COD, phosphorous, detergent, colour and turbidity species and metal hydroxides that destabilize and aggregate
with a high cell voltage and with different numbers of soluble the suspended particles or precipitate and adsorb dissolved
electrodes (aluminum electrodes). Then, the effect of different contaminants28 thus purifying the polluted water and generating
operating conditions including initial pH, pH changes during the gases, mainly hydrogen at the cathode.
process, and charge loading were evaluated. Finally, the adsorption In the case of aluminum, the main reactions are:
kinetics of the process were analyzed. oxidation at the anode:

Al-3e −−−→ Al3+ (1)

MATERIAL AND METHODS
reduction at the cathode:
Experimental device
The laboratory scale reactor consisted of an undivided plastic 3H2 O + 3e− −−−→ 3/2H2 + 3OH− (2)
electrocoagulation cell (20 cm × 10 cm × 15 cm) with an anode,
cathode and variable number of plates in parallel. All the electrodes Then the generated Al3+ and OH− ions react to form Al(OH)3
and additional plates were aluminum sheets (20 cm × 7.5 cm ×
2 mm). The gap between plates was varied between 15 and 30 mm. Al3+ + 3H2 O −−−→ Al(OH)3 + 3H+ (3)
Magnetic stirring (400 rpm) was applied in all tests to provide a
Al(OH)3 + OH− −−−→ Al(OH)−
4 (4)
homogenous solution in the batch reactor containing 1.5 L of
waste-water. A DC stabilized power source was used to supply The hydrolysis and polymerization of aluminum hydroxide
constant current (0–2 A) at variable voltage (0–30 V) (constant species under appropriate pH conditions subsequently give rise
current source). to the formation of various monomeric species such as Al(OH)2+ ,
Al(OH)2 + , Al2 (OH)2 4+ , Al(OH)4 − and various polymeric species
Samples such as Al6 (OH)15 3+ , Al7 (OH)17 4+ , Al8 (OH)20 4+ , Al13 O4 (OH)24 7+ ,
In this investigation, samples of waste-water from a laundry center Al13 (OH)34 5+ , which can effectively remove pollutants by adsorp-
located in Tehran, Iran were used. The typical composition of the tion resulting in charge neutralization, and by enmeshment in a
waste-water is shown in Table 1. precipitate.

Table 1. Laundry waste-water quality

COD Detergent Turbidity Phosphorous Suspended solids Lead Zinc
Parameter (mg L−1 ) (mg L−1 ) Colour (NTU) (mg L−1 ) (mg L−1 ) (mg L−1 ) (mg L−1 )

Concentration 4155 463 1430 245 27.6 987 4.35 3.2

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The polymeric species have reactive groups that bind to specific

sites on the surface of the colloidal particles with the remainder of
the long-chain molecule extending into the waste-water. Once the
extended portion of the polymer becomes attached to another
colloidal particle, they can be bridged by the polymer. If no other
particle is available or if there is an excess of polymer, the free
extended portions of the polymer molecule can wrap around the
original particle, effectively restabilizing the colloid. Restabilization
can also occur by aggressive mixing or extended agitation, which
may break the interparticle bridging and allow the freed polymeric
sections to enclose the original particles.
This type of coagulation is called sweep coagulation and the
rate of precipitation is influenced by:
1. oversaturation: to obtain fast precipitation and efficient sweep Figure 1. Removal efficiencies of COD, phosphorus, detergent, turbidity
coagulation, high concentrations of Al(OH)3 are required; and colour as a function of initial pH (HRT, 15 min; voltage, 30 V; two extra
2. presence of anions: the rate is improved by the presence of plates; distance between plates, 15 mm).
various anions, the most effective of which are sulfates;
3. concentration of colloids: the rate is also improved by high
The results (Fig. 1) demonstrate the removal efficiencies of COD,
concentrations of colloidal particles. The reason for this is that
turbidity, detergent, colour and phosphorus as a function of the
the colloids themselves can act as nuclei for the formation of
influent pH with the optimum pH around 6–8. However, phos-
precipitates.
phorus removal drops dramatically at pH values <6 or >8. A slight
Other reactions can be observed at the cathode surface that can drop in COD, turbidity and colour removal is observed at pH >9.
cause the precipitation of carbonate salts. These results can be explained by the distribution of aluminum
ionic species. In the pH range 5–9 hydrolysis and polymerization
HCO− −
3 + OH −−−→ CO3 + H2 O
2−
(5) of Al3+ give rise to species such as Al(OH)2+ , Al2 (OH)2 4+ , Al(OH)3
Ca + CO2− and charged hydroxo cationic complexes such as Al13 (OH)32 7+ ,
3 −−−→ CaCO3
2+
(6)
which are efficient for coagulation.2 When pH is greater than 10,
Mg2+ + CO2−
3 −−−→ MgCO3 (7) the main hydrolysis product is Al(OH)4− , which does not favour the
formation of an anodized aluminum surface and the adsorption of
During electrocoagulation metal hydroxide flocs are formed dispersed solids. At low pH where only Al3+ is present adsorption
which have a large surface area beneficial for rapid adsorption is insignificant.29
of soluble organic compounds and trapping of colloidal particles.
These flocs are finally easily removed from aqueous medium by
sedimentation or flotation. Effect of HRT on pH changes
Because of the characteristics of the laundry waste-water, The pH of a solution is one of the most important parameters, but
molecular chlorine is generated during electrolysis from the controlling the pH is very difficult because the reactions involved
presence of chloride salts: change the pH. These changes were measured during the test
at different times and with different numbers of plates (Fig. 2).
2Cl− −−−→ Cl2 + 2e− (8) It is obvious that up to 1 h pH increases from 8.3 to >10, after
which pH remains relatively constant. Thus, pH adjustment may
The generated molecular chlorine can then be hydrolyzed to be needed before the process effluent is discharged. The main
form hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions: reason for the changes in pH is the production of excess OH−
from the waste-water due to H2 and O2 bubble ‘purge’, causing
Cl2 + H2 O −−−→ HOCl + H+ + Cl− (9) an increase in pH. In addition, chemical dissolution of Al (reaction
− + 1) will consume H+ and increase the pH. Moreover, reaction 3 will
HClO −−−→ ClO + H (10)
shift towards the left again resulting in a pH increase. At high pH
values, reactions 5–7 will proceed readily and reaction 4 may also
These species, because of their high oxidative potentials, can
take place, both leading to a decrease in pH. The pH neutralization
degrade organic compounds. In addition if the anode potential is
effect makes this process effective over a much wider pH range,
high enough, direct oxidation of organic compounds may occur
which makes it superior to traditional chemical coagulation, which
at the anode.
is highly sensitive to pH change and effective coagulation is only
achieved at pH 6–7.30
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Effect of initial pH on the performance of the Effect of HRT on removal of COD, turbidity, detergent, colour
electrocoagulation process and phosphorus
An important factor affecting the performance of the electro- Experiments were carried out in a cell equipped with two Al
chemical process is the initial pH of the electrolyte, which affects electrodes and two Al plates located between the electrodes at
process performance, and the final pH, which affects the solubil- a fixed potential of 30 V, 15 mm distance between plates, and
ity of the Al hydroxides. To examine the effect of initial pH, the at different electrolysis times. Figure 3 shows that COD removal
laundry waste-water was adjusted to the desired pH (in the range increases during the first 15 min at a relatively high rate, then
3–10) with diluted aqueous sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid. slows, reaching a plateau after 40 min reaction time. This is a

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 www.soci.org F Janpoor, A Torabian, V Khatibikamal

removing contaminants and by eliminating competing anions and

using a pure coagulant source, lower metal residuals are obtained
and less sludge is produced than when metal salts are used.
This is an important advantage because sludge management
costs 40–50% of the total treatment costs. A contaminant-free
ion source allows maximum adsorptive removal of the various
dissolved metal species requiring treatment. Contaminants in
industrial grade aluminum salts would end up in either the treated
effluent or sludge cake. Fluctuating flow rates or contaminant
loads that cause difficulties in the operation of chemical treatment
systems do not affect the electrochemical process. During
aluminum electrolysis, hydroxide micro-flocs are formed rapidly
by anodic dissolution. After electrolysis the water is gently stirred
for few minutes to agglomerate micro-flocs into larger easily
settleable flocs. All kinds of microparticles and negatively charged
ions, including phosphate, are attached to the flocs by electrostatic
Figure 2. Variation of pH in bipolar electrocoagulation reactor (voltage,
30 V; distance between plates, 15 mm).
attachment. As shown, phosphorous removal in the first 15 min
increases sharply and continues to rise slowly up to 45 min when
it reaches a plateau after which further removal amounts to about
7% and can be neglected. Therefore, the optimum HRT of EC
process for phosphorous removal in this study is 45 min.
The process for detergent removal may be assumed to
involve initial adsorption onto the particulate surface, making it
hydrophobic, and thus forcing the particulate onto the surface
of rising bubbles. Finally the detergent–particulate–bubble
composite is floated to the surface. Figure 3 shows that the
detergent concentration decreases fairly rapidly in the first 15 min
and then the rate decreases and reaches a plateau after 60 min.
The colour and turbidity of the waste-water also decrease during
the process and this decrease may involve physical adsorption by
highly charged polynuclear hydroxy aluminum complexes, such
as Al2 (OH)2 4+ , Al7 (OH)17 4+ , Al13 (OH)34 5+ , Al3 (OH)4 5+ , Al(OH)6 3− ,
Al(OH)7 4− and AlO2− , contained in the water.33
Figure 3. Removal efficiencies of COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and
turbidity with electrolysis time (voltage, 30 V; two extra plates; distance
between plates, 15 mm). Effect of voltage on COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and
turbidity removal
Operating voltage and electric current are critical in batch
very attractive feature for densely populated areas where the electrocoagulation. According to Faraday’s law, the amount of
compactness of the treatment facility is particularly important. aluminum dissolved electrochemically is proportional to charge
The mechanism of the electrochemical process in aqueous loadings. The passage of 1 F (26.8 Ah) of current evolves
system is quite complex.31 However, it can be suggested that 0.0224 Nm3 hydrogen gas, which is much greater than the volume
during the electrocoagulation process the aluminum electrodes of gas released in traditional dissolved air flotation. Consequently,
are mainly responsible for electrocoagulation. The removal increasing current density will increase the charge loading leading
of COD by electrocoagulation could be due to the removal to increased removal of pollutants. Furthermore, better collection
of suspended solids and precipitation of dissolved COD by efficiencies can be obtained during electroflotation by generation
electrocoagulation, electroflotation, direct anodic oxidation, and of smaller bubbles with increasing current density.34
indirect oxidation by chloride ions. Moreover, COD removal Voltage is the only operating parameter that can be controlled
may also involve electrochemical oxidation and adsorption by directly because, considering reactions 4–6, current will change
electrostatic attraction and physical entrapment. with time. In addition the build up of sediments like carbonate
Phosphorus present in the laundry waste-water is removed salts on the aluminum plate can affect the electrical current.
by adsorption on metal hydroxides produced from the respective In this system electrode spacing is fixed and voltage is a
coagulants. Electrochemically produced aluminum ions have been continuous supply. The voltage directly determines both the
found to be more efficient at removing phosphorus than the coagulant dose and bubble generation rate, as well as strongly
same amount of aluminum contained in an aluminum sulfate influencing both mixing of solution and mass transfer at the
solution.32 The main disadvantage of this process is that the electrodes. Thus a set of experiments was carried out to quantify
presence of anions like chloride and sulfate reduce the removal the impact of operating voltage on reactor performance. The
efficiency and increase the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the removal efficiencies of pollutants in Table 2 show that the removal
treated waste-water. So to overcome these difficulties, in the of COD, phosphorus, detergent, turbidity and colour increased
present investigation, aluminum plates are used for the anode (for with increasing voltage. In evaluating batch electrocoagulation as
the generation of the coagulants) and cathode. Electrochemical ion a technology to provide a low cost, low maintenance local waste-
generation has several distinct advantages, coagulants introduced water treatment, this set of experiments clearly demonstrates two
without corresponding sulfate or chloride ions are more efficient at important results. First, that operating current density is the key

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Treatment of laundry waste-water by electrocoagulation www.soci.org

Table 2. Removal efficiencies of COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and turbidity as a function of voltage (two extra plates; distance between
plates, 1.5 cm)
Phosphorus removal Detergent removal
COD removal (%) (%) (%) Colour removal (%) Turbidity removal (%)

Time (min) 10 V 20 V 30 V 10 V 20 V 30 V 10 V 20 V 30 V 10 V 20 V 30 V 10 V 20 V 30 V

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 41.4 47.1 79.7 39.1 43.5 53.6 34.3 47.1 59.8 33.1 49.4 69.1 26.7 47.3 88.4
30 52.7 67.2 81.6 55.1 54.7 66.3 44.7 67.2 75.8 42.4 56.6 73 45.7 63.4 91.4
45 56.1 73.2 88.6 69.2 73.6 83.3 51.2 73.2 89.6 48.1 71.2 85.2 51.4 69.1 92.8
60 61.4 79.5 89.3 79 84.1 88.4 55.9 79.5 93.3 55.4 78.9 88 57.2 70.8 94.4
75 66 82.1 89.8 76.8 87.3 90.6 60.7 82.1 95 61.4 80.1 93.1 62.1 74.1 96.7
90 67.3 82.7 89.9 81.2 88 90.9 62 82.7 95.5 65.3 81 94 65.4 75 97

operational parameter, affecting not only the system’s response electrocoagulation, two distinct processes take place: generation
time, but also strongly influencing the dominant mode of pollutant of flocs (electro-dissolution) and adsorption of pollutant on the
separation. Second, these results indicate that running the reactor generated flocs (physical adsorption). The removal of pollutant by
at the highest allowable current density may not be the most adsorption onto flocs is very similar to conventional adsorption
efficient mode of operation. For any specific application, the except for the generation of flocs. The electrode consumption and
optimal current density will invariably involve a trade-off between concentration of generated flocs can be estimated according to
operating costs and efficient use of the introduced coagulant. Faraday’s Law. Since the amount of coagulant can be determined
Moreover, changes in electrical current with fixed voltage were for a given time, the pollutant removal can be modeled by
evaluated and with voltages of 5, 10, 20 and 30 V, the current adsorption phenomenon. Experimental isotherms provide a useful
would be 0.15, 0.49, 0.81 and 1.32 A, respectively. tool to describe the adsorption capacity of a specific adsorbent and
moreover, play a vital role for the analysis and design of adsorption
systems and for modeling and simulation of adsorption processes.
Effect of distance between anode, cathode and extra plates
Many theoretical models have been developed to describe the
The effect of distance between anode, cathode and extra plates experimental data corresponding to adsorption isotherms, but
is presented in Table 3. The results show that, with all other one of these, the Lagergren model, has been widely used to
parameters constant, removal efficiencies of all pollutants increase describe the behaviour of adsorbent–adsorbate. So, in this study
when the distance between the plates is decreased. The main the adsorption kinetic data for COD, phosphorus and detergent
reason for this is that resistance between plates at constant are analyzed using the Lagergren rate equation. The first-order
voltage is decreased so the current increases thus increasing the Lagergren model is:35
concentration of coagulants and bubbles.
dq
= k1 (qe − q) (11)
Effect of extra plates between cathode and anode on dt
performance of electrocoagulation process where qe and q are the adsorption capacities at equilibrium and
The variation of COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and turbidity at time t (min), respectively; k1 (min−1 ) is the rate constant of
with electrolysis time and the effect of increasing the number first-order adsorption. The integrated form of the above equation
of plates between electrode plates is shown in Fig. 4. Increasing is:
the number of plates increases the removal efficiencies of the k1 t
log(qe − q) = log(qe ) − (12)
pollutants. When two and four extra plates are located between 2.303
anode and cathode, the performance of the electrocoagulation The values of qe and k1 were calculated from the slope of the
process is enhanced because the amount of coagulants rises plots of log (qe − q) versus time (t). A straight line was obtained
and so the removal efficiencies increase. It is clear that this suggesting the applicability of this kinetic model. However, it was
increase in efficiency in a bipolar reactor is better than those found found that the calculated qe values were not compatible with the
with a monopolar reactor, and is connected to concentration of experimental values (data not shown), so the adsorption does not
coagulants produced in both cells. Increasing the number of plates obey first-order kinetics adsorption.36
in a bipolar reactor has a negative influence on removal efficiency The linearized second-order kinetic model is expressed as:
because the extra plates increase the resistance of the system
and consequently the current and concentration of coagulants dq
= k2 (qe − q)2 (13)
decrease. Thus, in each investigation, determination of optimum dt
number of extra plates is essential.
where k2 is the rate constant for second-order adsorption. The
integrated form of Equation (13) is
Adsorption kinetics
Contrary to conventional batch adsorption processes in which the 1 1
= + k2 t (14)
adsorption capacity and pollution concentration reach a maximum qe − q qe
simultaneously, in an electrocoagulation process the amount of t 1 t
= + (15)
insoluble Al(OH)3 particles starts from zero. As stated earlier, in q k2 q2e qe

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 www.soci.org F Janpoor, A Torabian, V Khatibikamal

Table 3. Effect of distance between anode, cathode and extra plates on performance of electrocoagulation (two extra plates; voltage, 30 V)
Phosphorus removal Detergent removal Turbidity removal
COD removal (%) (%) (%) Colour removal (%) (%)

Time
(min) 1.5 cm 3 cm 1.5 cm 3 cm 1.5 cm 3 cm 1.5 cm 3 cm 1.5 cm 3 cm

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 79.7 61.3 53.6 50.4 59.8 38.3 69.1 46.8 88.4 84.8
30 81.6 79.6 66.3 64.3 75.8 55.9 73 57.1 91.4 90.3
45 88.6 85.6 83.3 79.3 89.6 67.6 85.2 72.8 92.8 91.3
60 89.3 87.3 88.4 83.3 93.3 71.5 88 78.6 94.4 92.7
75 89.8 87.6 90.6 89.5 95 72.0 93.1 78.9 96.7 95.0
90 89.9 87.6 90.9 89.2 95.5 72.3 94 79.2 97 95.5

Figure 4. Effect of varying number of extra plates on COD (a), phosphorus (b), detergent (c), colour (d), and turbidity (e) removal (voltage, 30 V; distance
between plates, 15 mm).

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Figure 5. Second-order kinetic model of COD (a), phosphorus (b), detergent (c) removal with electrolysis time (voltage, 30 V; distance between
plates, 15 mm).

Table 4. Comparison between calculated qe and K2 for COD, phosphorus and detergent in second-order adsorption isotherm (voltage, 30 V;
distance between plates, 15 mm)

Parameters Kind of reactor qe calculated (mg) K2 (g mg−1 min−1 R2

CO D Monopolar 1282 4.504 × 10−5 0.994

Bipolar (2 extra plates) 3846 8.78 × 10−5 0.999
Bipolar (4 extra plates) 4000 3.472 × 10−4 0.999
Phosphorus Monopolar 18.2 2.189 × 10−3 0.969
Bipolar (2 extra plates) 30.3 2.051 × 10−3 0.993
Bipolar (4 extra plates) 28.6 1.1 × 10−2 0.999
Detergent Monopolar 139.7 5.451 × 10−4 0.995
Bipolar (2 extra plates) 507.6 1.652 × 10−4 0.997
Bipolar (4 extra plates) 500 3.11 × 10−4 0.998

The plots of t/q versus time (t) (Fig. 5) are straight lines and the The experimental results show that COD, phosphorus, detergent,
values of qe and k2 were calculated from the slope and intercept colour, and turbidity removal efficiencies were enhanced by in-
of these plots. Correlation coefficients for the second-order kinetic creasing voltage, HRT, and the addition of extra aluminum plates
model obtained in bipolar reactor studies were >0.96. Table 4 between the anode and cathode. After treatment, the removal
shows the computed results obtained and these indicate that the percentages of COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour, and turbidity
adsorption system follows a second-order kinetic model. Also, it is were 93.2%, 96.7%, 93.5%, 90.1% and 95.9%, respectively, from
obvious that the kinetic of electrocoagulation is fast, so coagulant initial concentrations of 4155 mg L−1 , 27.6 mg L−1 , 463 mg L−1 ,
generation and the adsorption of pollutants are started rapidly. 1430 mg L−1 , and 245 mg L−1 , respectively. The adsorption ki-
netic data analyzed using the Lagergren rate equation showed
that the adsorption follows second-order kinetics.
CONCLUSION
In this study the performance of a parallel-plate electrocoagulation
process with aluminum electrodes for the treatment of laundry
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