Treatment of Turbid Wastewater by Means of Clean Electrochemical Technology: Investigation of the New Operational Parameters

Two different turbid wastewater (oily and milky) effluents were treated applying electrocoagulation process with aluminum / aluminum electrodes. the effect of operational parameters such as initial ph, current density, reaction time, initial concentrations (1000, 10000 ppm equivalent to 0.1-1 wt%), ionic strength, electrical energy consumption, types of circuits(direct current(dc), pulse current (pc) and alternating pulse current(apc)), were investigated to reach highest turbidity removal efficiency. the optimum parameters to reach highest (99.9 %) turbidity removal efficiency were determined as follows: eec range: 2.3-14.7 kwh/m3 wastewater, cd: 90-194.5 a/m2, operating time: 7-22 min, ph: 3-9 (optimum ph = 7 for oily waste waters and optimum ph = 5 for milky waste waters), voltage: 20 volts. similar removal efficiency was obtained in either dc or pc. however in “pc”, water recovery (0.93m3/m3 wastewater)was significant at minimum energy consumption (turbidity is less than 5 ntu). cod (chemical oxygen demand) reduction was more than 90%.