Investigation of electrochemical denitrification of prawn-farm wastewater

ABSTRACT

In Sri Lanka wastewater originated from prawn-farms contain an excessive amount of nitrate that is becoming a crucial issue on human health and environment. Currently, there are no proper practices to treat the wastewater. This study was aimed to develop an electrochemical method to remove nitrate from the wastewater and to investigate the effect of pH, retention time (RT), current, and surface area (SA) of the electrodes using Taguchi method. The maximum removal efficiency of nitrate (72%) by using copper cathode was obtained and the removal efficiency rates with copper cathode were higher than that with carbon and aluminum cathode.

KEYWORDS:

• Electrochemical method
• nitrate
• prawn industry’s wastewater
• salt bridge
• Taguchi method

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks go to all the staffs of the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering) of University of Peradeniya and Department of Science and Technology of Uva Wellassa University. I would like to convey my heartiest gratitude towards King Aqua Services (Private) Limited, for their kind patronage. I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my beloved parents, brother, and sister for their valuable help and encouragement and to all my colleagues who helped me in numerous ways to complete the study successfully.