Electrocoagulation process for the treatment of diary effluent: Optimization of operational parameters

Abstract

The present work focuses on the systematic study of the removal of diary industrial pollutants from effluent of MILMA – Kerala Co-operative Milk marketing Federation limited, Calicut through electrocoagulation process (EC). An electrocoagulation batch reactor with aluminium as anode and mild steel as cathode were designed and used for the treatment process. Optimization of various operating parameters such as operating time, pH and current Density on COD and Turbidity removal were studied. The results indicates that the operating time and the applied current density has a positive relationship with the removal efficiency. Higher removal efficiency was found at neutral to alkaline region pH of 7 to 9. Over 95.00 % of pollutants removal efficiently was observed by conducting the EC treatment at current density (CD) of 33.33 A/m2, pH of 7 and EC time of 75 min. The effect of multielectrode system was studied with the obtained optimized parameters in which Monopolar and Bipolar configurations were tested. Out of which Monopolar configuration was found to be most effective in reduction of COD.

Keywords

• Electrocoagulation
• diary effluent
• COD
• monopolar and bipolar electrode system