Effect of direct air injection through anode in plasma electrolysis process for batik dye wastewater treatment

Abstract

Plasma electrolysis has been proved have much higher effectivity in degrading complex pollutant contained in batik dye wastewater. This study aims to investigate the effect of gas bubbles with air injection of plasma electrolysis in decolorization process. A new method to form bubbles using injection of air directly through anode with a tiny hole of glass tube is proposed. This research work presents the effects of gas injection rates on various phenomena such as electrical power of discharge pulses, concentration of OH radicals, and the decolorization percentage of remazol red as the dye waste in a batch reactor system. Experimental results showed that direct injection of air through anode can reduce the required energy for plasma generation significantly compared to non gas injection. Energy consumption for discharge plasma was observed lowered at higher rates of gas injected. Optimum gas flow rate at different voltage has been evaluated based on the physical and chemical characteristics of plasma. At higher required energy due to higher operation voltage used, the required gas injection rate to effectively degrade the waste was found higher.