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Research Article

Received: 13 November 2010

Revised: 6 February 2011

Accepted: 3 March 2011

Published online in Wiley Online Library: 11 April 2011

(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 6.08.0. 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

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

that the process was not diffusion-controlled. Although surfactants


can be effectively removed by electrochemical oxidation, the instantaneous current efficiencies are very low, varying from 512%.
Among the electrochemical technologies, electrocoagulation and
electroflotation may be effective substitutes for conventional coagulation and flotation6 . Also electrocoagulation/electroflotation
has been reported to successfully treat different kinds of wastewater, containing oil,8 fluoride,9 arsenic,10 dyes,11 16 suspended
particles,17 chromium ions18 and phosphate.19,20
The removal of arsenic by electrocoagulation using a combined
AlFe electrode system was investigated by Jewel et al.21
Observation of the substitution of Fe3+ ions by Al3+ ions in the solid
surface indicates an alternative mechanism of arsenic removal
by these metal hydroxides and oxyhydroxides by providing
a larger surface area for arsenic adsorption by retarding the
formation of crystalline iron oxides. Research shows that owing
to their amorphous nature the presence of polymeric aluminum
hydroxides would provide significantly larger surface areas for
arsenic species adsorption. Merzouk et al.22 reported that two
main mechanisms are generally considered in electrocoagulation:
precipitation at pH values lower than 4 and adsorption at higher

Correspondence to: Vahid Khatibikamal, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Iran.
E-mail: vahidkhatibi@ut.ac.ir
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate Faculty of
Environment, University of Tehran, Iran

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c 2011 Society of Chemical Industry




1113

Waste-water from all laundry sources accounts for approximately


10% of municipal sewer discharges. In addition to high suspended
solids and biological oxygen demand (BOD) loading, the levels of
oil and grease, heavy metals and other organics exceed municipal
discharge standards. Commonly, laundry effluents contain more
than 1000 ppm suspended solids, 5000 ppm chemical oxygen
demand (COD), 1100 ppm fats, oil and grease (FOG), and 1300 ppm
BOD, in addition to metals and organic solvents such as toluene,
benzene, and perchlorethylene.1
The most widely used methods, such as traditional coagulation,
flotation, adsorption, and chemical oxidation or a combination of
these are insufficient for laundry waste-water treatment, especially
for the simultaneous removal of high content of suspended solids,
surfactants and phosphate, so a new method of treatment is necessary. Electrochemical methods for the treatment of waste-water
have recently attracted attention due to their safe and environmentally friendly nature. They are effective in treating waste-waters
containing several organic and inorganic compounds, including
phenol, dyes, metal ions, cyanide, etc., because various degradation 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 alkylbenzene sulfonates (ABS) could be completely removed by indirect
electrochemical oxidation in conjunction with chemical coagulation. Lissen et al.5 used boron doped diamond and graphite
electrodes to degrade two surfactants in dilute solution and found

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F Janpoor, A Torabian, V Khatibikamal

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


monomeric Al(OH)4 anion depending on the chemical structure
of the pollutant.
Recently several researchers have investigated the electrolytic
reduction of laundry waste-water. For example, Ge et al.2 studied the performance of an electrocoagulationelectroflotation
process in a single reactor using three aluminum plates placed
between two titanium electrodes of opposite charge and investigated the change of pH during the process, and the effect of
hydraulic retention time (HRT) and electrical current on the efficiency of COD removal. Wang et al.23 evaluated the removal of
COD from a simulated laundry waste-water using electrocoagulationelectroflotation technology and suggested that the rate of
COD removal was significantly influenced by applying ultrasound
to the electrocoagulation cell. Furthermore, My et al.24 and Chen25
found that there are few advantages for the treatment of laundry
waste-water by electrocoagulation compared with other methods.
Energy consumption could be decreased owing to better conductivity due to the presence of salts, and the reaction conditions
could be easily controlled by changing the cell current or voltage.
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
designed to operate at high voltage, usually higher than 10 V, to
break down the inhibiting layer. The results in the above articles
were restricted to evaluation of COD removal efficiencies, and
effects on other pollutants such as detergent, colour and turbidity
were not investigated.
The purpose of this work was to investigate the removal
efficiency of COD, phosphorous, detergent, colour and turbidity
with a high cell voltage and with different numbers of soluble
electrodes (aluminum electrodes). Then, the effect of different
operating conditions including initial pH, pH changes during the
process, and charge loading were evaluated. Finally, the adsorption
kinetics of the process were analyzed.

Experimentation
Experiments were conducted in a bipolar batch reactor with
two aluminum electrodes and a variable number of aluminum
plates. At the beginning of the experiment, the electrocoagulation
cell was thoroughly washed and rinsed with de-ionized water
followed by rinsing with the sample solution, and then a 1.5 L
sample was placed in the electrocoagulation cell. At the end
of each experiment, the solution was filtered through a 0.2 m
membrane filter before determination of the pH, COD, colour,
turbidity, detergent and phosphorous content. All experiments
were repeated twice and the experimental error was below 3%;
average data are reported.
Analysis
COD, detergent and phosphorus were measured according to
Standard Methods.26 Turbidity was recorded on a 2100N IS
Turbidimeter (Hach). The pH of the waste-water was measured
with a 720A pH meter (Orion). Colour was determined by dilution
and the UV-vis absorption scan (190350 nm) was obtained with
a UV-vis spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, Japan).
Mechanism of electrocoagulation
Electrocoagulation involves the processes of electrochemistry,
coagulation and hydrodynamics 27 and involves the creation of
metallic hydroxide flocs in the waste-water by electrodissolution
of soluble anodes, usually iron or aluminum. The electrical current
causes dissolution of the sacrificial metal anode and at appropriate
pH values the resulting metal ions form a wide range of coagulated
species and metal hydroxides that destabilize and aggregate
the suspended particles or precipitate and adsorb dissolved
contaminants28 thus purifying the polluted water and generating
gases, mainly hydrogen at the cathode.
In the case of aluminum, the main reactions are:
oxidation at the anode:
Al-3e Al3+

MATERIAL AND METHODS


Experimental device
The laboratory scale reactor consisted of an undivided plastic
electrocoagulation cell (20 cm 10 cm 15 cm) with an anode,
cathode and variable number of plates in parallel. All the electrodes
and additional plates were aluminum sheets (20 cm 7.5 cm
2 mm). The gap between plates was varied between 15 and 30 mm.
Magnetic stirring (400 rpm) was applied in all tests to provide a
homogenous solution in the batch reactor containing 1.5 L of
waste-water. A DC stabilized power source was used to supply
constant current (02 A) at variable voltage (030 V) (constant
current source).
Samples
In this investigation, samples of waste-water from a laundry center
located in Tehran, Iran were used. The typical composition of the
waste-water is shown in Table 1.

(1)

reduction at the cathode:


3H2 O + 3e 3/2H2 + 3OH

(2)

Then the generated Al3+ and OH ions react to form Al(OH)3


Al3+ + 3H2 O Al(OH)3 + 3H+

(3)

Al(OH)3 + OH Al(OH)
4

(4)

The hydrolysis and polymerization of aluminum hydroxide


species under appropriate pH conditions subsequently give rise
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
such as Al6 (OH)15 3+ , Al7 (OH)17 4+ , Al8 (OH)20 4+ , Al13 O4 (OH)24 7+ ,
Al13 (OH)34 5+ , which can effectively remove pollutants by adsorption resulting in charge neutralization, and by enmeshment in a
precipitate.

Table 1. Laundry waste-water quality


Parameter

1114

Concentration

COD
(mg L1 )

Detergent
(mg L1 )

Colour

Turbidity
(NTU)

Phosphorous
(mg L1 )

Suspended solids
(mg L1 )

Lead
(mg L1 )

Zinc
(mg L1 )

4155

463

1430

245

27.6

987

4.35

3.2

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c 2011 Society of Chemical Industry




J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

Treatment of laundry waste-water by electrocoagulation

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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
coagulation, high concentrations of Al(OH)3 are required;
2. presence of anions: the rate is improved by the presence of
various anions, the most effective of which are sulfates;
3. concentration of colloids: the rate is also improved by high
concentrations of colloidal particles. The reason for this is that
the colloids themselves can act as nuclei for the formation of
precipitates.
Other reactions can be observed at the cathode surface that can
cause the precipitation of carbonate salts.
2

HCO
3 + OH CO3 + H2 O

Ca + CO2
3 CaCO3
Mg2+ + CO2
3 MgCO3
2+

(5)
(6)
(7)

During electrocoagulation metal hydroxide flocs are formed


which have a large surface area beneficial for rapid adsorption
of soluble organic compounds and trapping of colloidal particles.
These flocs are finally easily removed from aqueous medium by
sedimentation or flotation.
Because of the characteristics of the laundry waste-water,
molecular chlorine is generated during electrolysis from the
presence of chloride salts:
2Cl Cl2 + 2e

(8)

The generated molecular chlorine can then be hydrolyzed to


form hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions:
Cl2 + H2 O HOCl + H+ + Cl

HClO ClO + H

(9)
(10)

These species, because of their high oxidative potentials, can


degrade organic compounds. In addition if the anode potential is
high enough, direct oxidation of organic compounds may occur
at the anode.

Figure 1. Removal efficiencies of COD, phosphorus, detergent, turbidity


and colour as a function of initial pH (HRT, 15 min; voltage, 30 V; two extra
plates; distance between plates, 15 mm).

The results (Fig. 1) demonstrate the removal efficiencies of COD,


turbidity, detergent, colour and phosphorus as a function of the
influent pH with the optimum pH around 68. However, phosphorus removal drops dramatically at pH values <6 or >8. A slight
drop in COD, turbidity and colour removal is observed at pH >9.
These results can be explained by the distribution of aluminum
ionic species. In the pH range 59 hydrolysis and polymerization
of Al3+ give rise to species such as Al(OH)2+ , Al2 (OH)2 4+ , Al(OH)3
and charged hydroxo cationic complexes such as Al13 (OH)32 7+ ,
which are efficient for coagulation.2 When pH is greater than 10,
the main hydrolysis product is Al(OH)4 , which does not favour the
formation of an anodized aluminum surface and the adsorption of
dispersed solids. At low pH where only Al3+ is present adsorption
is insignificant.29
Effect of HRT on pH changes
The pH of a solution is one of the most important parameters, but
controlling the pH is very difficult because the reactions involved
change the pH. These changes were measured during the test
at different times and with different numbers of plates (Fig. 2).
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
be needed before the process effluent is discharged. The main
reason for the changes in pH is the production of excess OH
from the waste-water due to H2 and O2 bubble purge, causing
an increase in pH. In addition, chemical dissolution of Al (reaction
1) will consume H+ and increase the pH. Moreover, reaction 3 will
shift towards the left again resulting in a pH increase. At high pH
values, reactions 57 will proceed readily and reaction 4 may also
take place, both leading to a decrease in pH. The pH neutralization
effect makes this process effective over a much wider pH range,
which makes it superior to traditional chemical coagulation, which
is highly sensitive to pH change and effective coagulation is only
achieved at pH 67.30

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

Effect of HRT on removal of COD, turbidity, detergent, colour


and phosphorus
Experiments were carried out in a cell equipped with two Al
electrodes and two Al plates located between the electrodes at
a fixed potential of 30 V, 15 mm distance between plates, and
at different electrolysis times. Figure 3 shows that COD removal
increases during the first 15 min at a relatively high rate, then
slows, reaching a plateau after 40 min reaction time. This is a

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1115

Effect of initial pH on the performance of the


electrocoagulation process
An important factor affecting the performance of the electrochemical process is the initial pH of the electrolyte, which affects
process performance, and the final pH, which affects the solubility of the Al hydroxides. To examine the effect of initial pH, the
laundry waste-water was adjusted to the desired pH (in the range
310) with diluted aqueous sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid.

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Figure 2. Variation of pH in bipolar electrocoagulation reactor (voltage,


30 V; distance between plates, 15 mm).

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).

1116

very attractive feature for densely populated areas where the


compactness of the treatment facility is particularly important.
The mechanism of the electrochemical process in aqueous
system is quite complex.31 However, it can be suggested that
during the electrocoagulation process the aluminum electrodes
are mainly responsible for electrocoagulation. The removal
of COD by electrocoagulation could be due to the removal
of suspended solids and precipitation of dissolved COD by
electrocoagulation, electroflotation, direct anodic oxidation, and
indirect oxidation by chloride ions. Moreover, COD removal
may also involve electrochemical oxidation and adsorption by
electrostatic attraction and physical entrapment.
Phosphorus present in the laundry waste-water is removed
by adsorption on metal hydroxides produced from the respective
coagulants. Electrochemically produced aluminum ions have been
found to be more efficient at removing phosphorus than the
same amount of aluminum contained in an aluminum sulfate
solution.32 The main disadvantage of this process is that the
presence of anions like chloride and sulfate reduce the removal
efficiency and increase the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the
treated waste-water. So to overcome these difficulties, in the
present investigation, aluminum plates are used for the anode (for
the generation of the coagulants) and cathode. Electrochemical ion
generation has several distinct advantages, coagulants introduced
without corresponding sulfate or chloride ions are more efficient at

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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 4050% 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
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 detergentparticulatebubble
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
Effect of voltage on COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and
turbidity removal
Operating voltage and electric current are critical in batch
electrocoagulation. According to Faradays law, the amount of
aluminum dissolved electrochemically is proportional to charge
loadings. The passage of 1 F (26.8 Ah) of current evolves
0.0224 Nm3 hydrogen gas, which is much greater than the volume
of gas released in traditional dissolved air flotation. Consequently,
increasing current density will increase the charge loading leading
to increased removal of pollutants. Furthermore, better collection
efficiencies can be obtained during electroflotation by generation
of smaller bubbles with increasing current density.34
Voltage is the only operating parameter that can be controlled
directly because, considering reactions 46, current will change
with time. In addition the build up of sediments like carbonate
salts on the aluminum plate can affect the electrical current.
In this system electrode spacing is fixed and voltage is a
continuous supply. The voltage directly determines both the
coagulant dose and bubble generation rate, as well as strongly
influencing both mixing of solution and mass transfer at the
electrodes. Thus a set of experiments was carried out to quantify
the impact of operating voltage on reactor performance. The
removal efficiencies of pollutants in Table 2 show that the removal
of COD, phosphorus, detergent, turbidity and colour increased
with increasing voltage. In evaluating batch electrocoagulation as
a technology to provide a low cost, low maintenance local wastewater treatment, this set of experiments clearly demonstrates two
important results. First, that operating current density is the key

c 2011 Society of Chemical Industry




J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

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)
COD removal (%)

Phosphorus removal
(%)

Detergent 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
15
30
45
60
75
90

0
41.4
52.7
56.1
61.4
66
67.3

0
47.1
67.2
73.2
79.5
82.1
82.7

0
79.7
81.6
88.6
89.3
89.8
89.9

0
39.1
55.1
69.2
79
76.8
81.2

0
43.5
54.7
73.6
84.1
87.3
88

0
53.6
66.3
83.3
88.4
90.6
90.9

0
34.3
44.7
51.2
55.9
60.7
62

0
47.1
67.2
73.2
79.5
82.1
82.7

0
59.8
75.8
89.6
93.3
95
95.5

0
33.1
42.4
48.1
55.4
61.4
65.3

0
49.4
56.6
71.2
78.9
80.1
81

0
69.1
73
85.2
88
93.1
94

0
26.7
45.7
51.4
57.2
62.1
65.4

0
47.3
63.4
69.1
70.8
74.1
75

0
88.4
91.4
92.8
94.4
96.7
97

operational parameter, affecting not only the systems response


time, but also strongly influencing the dominant mode of pollutant
separation. Second, these results indicate that running the reactor
at the highest allowable current density may not be the most
efficient mode of operation. For any specific application, the
optimal current density will invariably involve a trade-off between
operating costs and efficient use of the introduced coagulant.
Moreover, changes in electrical current with fixed voltage were
evaluated and with voltages of 5, 10, 20 and 30 V, the current
would be 0.15, 0.49, 0.81 and 1.32 A, respectively.
Effect of distance between anode, cathode and extra plates
The effect of distance between anode, cathode and extra plates
is presented in Table 3. The results show that, with all other
parameters constant, removal efficiencies of all pollutants increase
when the distance between the plates is decreased. The main
reason for this is that resistance between plates at constant
voltage is decreased so the current increases thus increasing the
concentration of coagulants and bubbles.
Effect of extra plates between cathode and anode on
performance of electrocoagulation process
The variation of COD, phosphorus, detergent, colour and turbidity
with electrolysis time and the effect of increasing the number
of plates between electrode plates is shown in Fig. 4. Increasing
the number of plates increases the removal efficiencies of the
pollutants. When two and four extra plates are located between
anode and cathode, the performance of the electrocoagulation
process is enhanced because the amount of coagulants rises
and so the removal efficiencies increase. It is clear that this
increase in efficiency in a bipolar reactor is better than those found
with a monopolar reactor, and is connected to concentration of
coagulants produced in both cells. Increasing the number of plates
in a bipolar reactor has a negative influence on removal efficiency
because the extra plates increase the resistance of the system
and consequently the current and concentration of coagulants
decrease. Thus, in each investigation, determination of optimum
number of extra plates is essential.

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

dq
= k1 (qe q)
dt

(11)

where qe and q are the adsorption capacities at equilibrium and


at time t (min), respectively; k1 (min1 ) is the rate constant of
first-order adsorption. The integrated form of the above equation
is:
k1 t
(12)
log(qe q) = log(qe )
2.303
The values of qe and k1 were calculated from the slope of the
plots of log (qe q) versus time (t). A straight line was obtained
suggesting the applicability of this kinetic model. However, it was
found that the calculated qe values were not compatible with the
experimental values (data not shown), so the adsorption does not
obey first-order kinetics adsorption.36
The linearized second-order kinetic model is expressed as:
dq
= k2 (qe q)2
dt

(13)

where k2 is the rate constant for second-order adsorption. The


integrated form of Equation (13) is
1
1
+ k2 t
=
qe q
qe
t
1
t
+
=
q
qe
k2 q2e

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(14)
(15)

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1117

Adsorption kinetics
Contrary to conventional batch adsorption processes in which the
adsorption capacity and pollution concentration reach a maximum
simultaneously, in an electrocoagulation process the amount of
insoluble Al(OH)3 particles starts from zero. As stated earlier, in

electrocoagulation, two distinct processes take place: generation


of flocs (electro-dissolution) and adsorption of pollutant on the
generated flocs (physical adsorption). The removal of pollutant by
adsorption onto flocs is very similar to conventional adsorption
except for the generation of flocs. The electrode consumption and
concentration of generated flocs can be estimated according to
Faradays Law. Since the amount of coagulant can be determined
for a given time, the pollutant removal can be modeled by
adsorption phenomenon. Experimental isotherms provide a useful
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.
Many theoretical models have been developed to describe the
experimental data corresponding to adsorption isotherms, but
one of these, the Lagergren model, has been widely used to
describe the behaviour of adsorbentadsorbate. So, in this study
the adsorption kinetic data for COD, phosphorus and detergent
are analyzed using the Lagergren rate equation. The first-order
Lagergren model is:35

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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)
COD removal (%)
Time
(min)
0
15
30
45
60
75
90

Phosphorus removal
(%)

Detergent removal
(%)

Colour removal (%)

Turbidity removal
(%)

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
79.7
81.6
88.6
89.3
89.8
89.9

0
61.3
79.6
85.6
87.3
87.6
87.6

0
53.6
66.3
83.3
88.4
90.6
90.9

0
50.4
64.3
79.3
83.3
89.5
89.2

0
59.8
75.8
89.6
93.3
95
95.5

0
38.3
55.9
67.6
71.5
72.0
72.3

0
69.1
73
85.2
88
93.1
94

0
46.8
57.1
72.8
78.6
78.9
79.2

0
88.4
91.4
92.8
94.4
96.7
97

0
84.8
90.3
91.3
92.7
95.0
95.5

1118

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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J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

Treatment of laundry waste-water by electrocoagulation

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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)
1282
3846
4000

K2 (g mg1 min1

R2

4.504 105
8.78 105
3.472 104

0.994
0.999
0.999

CO D

Monopolar
Bipolar (2 extra plates)
Bipolar (4 extra plates)

Phosphorus

Monopolar
Bipolar (2 extra plates)
Bipolar (4 extra plates)

18.2
30.3
28.6

2.189 103
2.051 103
1.1 102

0.969
0.993
0.999

Detergent

Monopolar
Bipolar (2 extra plates)
Bipolar (4 extra plates)

139.7
507.6
500

5.451 104
1.652 104
3.11 104

0.995
0.997
0.998

The plots of t/q versus time (t) (Fig. 5) are straight lines and the
values of qe and k2 were calculated from the slope and intercept
of these plots. Correlation coefficients for the second-order kinetic
model obtained in bipolar reactor studies were >0.96. Table 4
shows the computed results obtained and these indicate that the
adsorption system follows a second-order kinetic model. Also, it is
obvious that the kinetic of electrocoagulation is fast, so coagulant
generation and the adsorption of pollutants are started rapidly.

CONCLUSION

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2011; 86: 11131120

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1119

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