Production of a coagulant by electrocoagulation for the treatment of drinking water

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study is the application of electrocoagulation to produce a coagulant for drinking water treatment using aluminium plates recovered from waste of aluminium door and window manufacturing workshop. The influence of the optimum operating conditions controlling electrocoagulation was defined for different parameters such as electrolyte concentration, pH of the medium, plate number (electrodes) and contact time. The results showed that 47.6 g of coagulant was obtained for pH equal to 4 and electrolyte concentration of 0.04 mol L⁻¹ with four electrodes for the period of 1 day. The produced coagulant was characterised by structural analysis (FTIR), analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and physical analysis by BET. Thus, the coagulant prepared was used in conjunction with the commercial flocculant (polymer) to evaluate their performance to removal efficiency of organic matter (~97%), turbidity (82.61%) and the aluminium ions (Al3+) concentration (50%) in raw water.

KEYWORDS:

• Coagulant
• electrocoagulation
• electrodes
• coagulation–flocculation
• drinking water
• workshop waste

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).