Electrochemical treatment of tannery effluent using a battery integrated DC-DC converter and solar PV power supply--an approach towards environment and energy management.

Electrochemical oxidation of tannery effluent was carried out in batch, batch recirculation and continuous reactor configurations under different conditions using a battery-integrated DC-DC converter and solar PV power supply. The effect of current density, electrolysis time and fluid flow rate on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and energy consumption has been evaluated. The results of batch reactor show that a COD reduction of 80.85% to 96.67% could be obtained. The results showed that after 7 h of operation at a current density of 2.5 A dm(-2) and flow rate of 100 L h(-1) in batch recirculation reactor, the removal of COD is 82.14% and the specific energy consumption was found to be 5.871 kWh (kg COD)(-1) for tannery effluent. In addition, the performance of single pass flow reactors (single and multiple reactors) system of various configurations are analyzed.

Thin wetted film cylindrical flow photo reactor for the degradation of Procion blue H-B dye over TiO2 and ZnO.

A thin wetted film cylindrical flow reactor was fabricated for photocatalytic oxidation of Procion blue H-B dye in textile washwater with the suspensions of TiO2 and ZnO. The disappearance of colour and organic reduction were studied in terms of the removal of colour and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Operating parameters such as effect of pH, UV irradiation with and without catalyst, initial concentration of dye and effect of flow rate were studied and kinetics of Procion blue H-B dye has been studied over TiO2 and ZnO surfaces. Since adsorption is the prerequisite condition for decolorization/degradation of dye molecules in the presence of heterogeneous catalysis, the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were examined to verify the adsorption intensity. The results clearly demonstrated that, the optimum loading of the photocatalyst was found to be 300 and 400 mg/L of TiO2 and ZnO, respectively. The maximum COD reduction efficiency was 68% for TiO2 and 58% for ZnO. On the other hand, the colour removal efficiency was found to be 74% and 69%, respectively for TiO2- and ZnO-assisted systems under optimum conditions. Conclusively, these two semiconductors could degrade Procion blue H-B dye at different time intervals and both isotherms fit well.

Electrochemical degradation of specialty chemical industry effluent.

Conventional wastewater treatment techniques are inefficient to manage large quantities of refractory organics discharged by specialty chemical industries. It is aimed in the present investigation to compare overall performance of the basic electrochemical reactor configurations such as batch, batch recirculation and continuous recycle reactors, in removing the organic part of wastewater from a medium-scale, specialty chemical industry. The effects of current density, supporting electrolyte concentration, electrolysis duration and fluid flow rate on the pollutant removal and energy consumption performances were critically evaluated. Continuous recycle reactor is found to be the better configuration, because of its flexibility of operation. Circulation flow rate and withdrawal flow rate enable control on transfer coefficients and treatment duration respectively. The ability of artificial neural network (ANN) in predicting the performance of the batch electrochemical treatment has also been demonstrated.

Removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater by electrochemical oxidation using cylindrical flow reactor and optimization of treatment conditions.

This paper examines the use of electrooxidation for treatment of wastewater obtained from a pharmaceutical industry. The wastewater primarily contained Gentamicin and Dexamethasone. With NaCl as supporting electrolyte, the effluent was treated in a cylindrical flow reactor in continuous (single pass) mode under various current densities (2-5 A/dm2) and flow rates (10-40 L/h). By cyclic voltammetric (CV) analysis, the optimum condition for maximum redox reaction was determined. The efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction and power consumption were studied for different operating conditions. From the results it was observed that maximum COD reduction of about 85.56% was obtained at a flow rate of 10 L/h with an applied current density of 4 A/dm2. FT-IR spectra studies showed that during electrooxidation, the intensities of characteristic functional groups such as N-H, O-H were reduced and some new peaks also started to appear. Probable theory, reaction mechanism and modeling were proposed for the oxidation of pharmaceutical effluent. The experimental results demonstrated that electrooxidation treatment was very effective and capable of elevating the quality of treated wastewater to the reuse standard prescribed for pharmaceutical industries.

Evaluation of electrochemical oxidation techniques for degradation of dye effluents--a comparative approach.

The high energy cost of an electrochemical method is the fatal drawback that hinders its large scale application in wastewater treatment. The traditional single-chamber electrochemical method used in the waste water treatment mainly focused on anodic oxidation, but hydrogen produced on the cathode and indirect electrochemical treatment involves application of an electrical current to the wastewater containing chloride to convert into chlorine/hypochlorite. The two-compartment electrolytic cell, separated by an anion exchange membrane, has been developed in this work. In the new reactor, indirect oxidation at anode, indirect oxidation by hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet/hydrogen peroxide (UV/H(2)O(2)) at cathode can occur simultaneously. The electrochemically produced hydrogen peroxide at the cathode by reduction of oxygen is affected by passing atmospheric air. Therefore "dual electrochemical oxidation" in one electrochemical reactor was achieved successfully. Compared to a traditional one-cell reactor, this reactor reduces the energy cost approximately by 25-40%, and thus the present work becomes significant in wastewater treatment. Experiments were carried out at different current densities using Ti/RuO(2)/IrO(2) as anode and carbon felt gas diffusion electrode used as a cathode fed with oxygen containing gases to produce hydrogen peroxide. During the various stages of electrolysis, the parameters such as, effect of pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), colour, energy consumption were monitored. UV-vis spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) studies were carried out to assess efficiencies of dye degradation.

Removal of arsenic from aqueous solution using electrocoagulation.

Removal of arsenic from aqueous solution was carried out using electrocoagulation. Experiments were conducted using mild steel sacrificial anode covering wide range in operating conditions to assess the removal efficiency. The maximum arsenic removal efficiency was recorded as 94% under optimum condition. The electrocoagulation mechanism of arsenic removal has been developed to understand the effect of applied charge and electrolyte pH on arsenic removal efficiency. Further the experimental data were tested with different adsorption isotherm model to describe the electrocoagulation process.

Recovery and reuse of Ni(II) from rinsewater of electroplating industries.

Discharge of nickel compounds, which may occur in both liquid and solid phases, can cause severe environmental problems. In this work, 'point of source' treatment strategy is followed and reduced the nickel content of rinsewater to about less than 1 mg L(-1) by ion-exchange method using a packed column involving batch recirculation mode of operation and to recovered Ni(II) content by desorption. The treated water could be recycled for rinsing operation. The nickel from resin is first precipitated as nickel hydroxide to synthesize positive active material and that was used in Nickel/Metal hydride cell. The performances in terms of electrochemical utilization of nickel hydroxide, specific capacity as a function of discharge current density and cycle life were examined and the nickel hydroxide electrode with 5% CaCO(3) addition, having 200 mAh g(-1) specific capacity, could be subjected to charge/discharge cycles at C/5 rate for more than 200 cycles without the capacity fading.

Electrochemical oxidation of textile wastewater and its reuse.

It is attempted in the present investigation to treat organic pollutant present in the textile effluent using an electrochemical treatment technique. Experiments are carried out in a batch electrochemical cell covering wide range in operating conditions. Due to the strong oxidizing potential of the chemicals produced, the effluent COD is reduced substantially in this treatment technique. The influence of effluent initial concentration, pH, supporting electrolyte concentration and the anode material on pollutant degradation has been critically examined. It is further attempted in the present investigation to reuse the treated wastewater for dyeing purpose. Several cycles of dyeing operations have been performed with the treated textile wastewater and the dye uptake and water quality have been critically examined at each cycle of dyeing process. The results indicate that the electrochemical method is a feasible technique for treatment of textile wastewater and electrochemically treated wastewater can be effectively reused for dyeing application.

Electrochemical treatment of Procion Black 5B using cylindrical flow reactor--a pilot plant study.

The paper presents the results of an efficient electrochemical treatment of Procion Black 5B--a pilot plant study. Experiments were conducted at different current densities and selected electrolyte medium using Ti/RuO2 as anode, stainless-steel as cathode in a cylindrical flow reactor. By cyclic voltammetric analysis, the best condition for maximum redox reaction rate was found to be in NaCl medium. During the various stages of electrolysis, parameters such as COD, colour, FTIR, UV-vis spectra studies, energy consumption and mass transfer coefficient were computed and presented. The experimental results showed that the electrochemical oxidation process could effectively remove colour and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) from the synthetic dye effluent. The maximum COD reduction and colour removal efficiencies were 74.05% and 100%, respectively. Probable theory, reaction mechanism and modeling were proposed for the oxidation of dye effluent. The results obtained reveal the feasibilities of application of electrochemical treatment for the degradation of Procion Black 5B.