Bilge Water Treatment in an Upflow Electrochemical Reactor using Pt Anode

Abstract

Bilge water treatment was studied in an upflow electrochemical reactor (UECR) in order to design a compact onboard wastewater treatment system. The influence of retention time on the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity were analyzed, and optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) for maximizing the removal efficiencies. The best operating performance was obtained at 390 min retention time and 480 min reaction time for cost effective analysis with the composition of 100% bilge water (COD_o = 3080 mg/L) and 50/50% seawater/fresh water, 12.8 mA/cm² current density, and 32°C reaction temperature. Under response surface optimized conditions, the responses were estimated as; 90% COD removal, 97% turbidity removal, outlet pH value of 8.1, mass transfer coefficient of 0.494 × 10⁻⁵ m/s, and mean energy consumption of 44.8 kWh/kg COD removed.

Keywords:

• bilge water
• electrochemical oxidation/degradation
• Pt anode
• response surface methodology
• wastewater treatment

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was supported by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) with Grant No. ÇAYDAG-106Y087. MSc dissertation was supported by Mersin University Scientific Research Projects Center (MEÜ BAP) with Grant No. BAP-FBE KM (KA) 2006-3YL.

Notes

(a) R² = 0.66;  = 0.64; Adequate Precision = 19.20 > 4.00.

(b) R² = 0.74;  = 0.72; Adequate Precision = 21.37 > 4.00.

(c) R² = 0.69;  = 0.67; Adequate Precision = 18.32 > 4.00.

(d) R² = 0.84;  = 0.83; Adequate Precision = 32.29 > 4.00.