Effectiveness of electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation methods on paper industry wastewaters and optimum operating parameters

ABSTRACT

Electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation are treatment methods based on the same removal mechanism.In this study, it was investigated the effectiveness of coagulation methods using Al electrodes and Al₂(SO₄)₃.18H₂O on the wastewaters from cardboard production.In the electrocoagulation experiments, the optimum current and pH where the highest COD removal efficiency by 54% was achieved were determined respectively as 10A and 6.62.The study also it was seen that 58%COD removal was reached for the KCl concentration of 0.5 mg/L that was applied.In the chemical coagulation study, the highest removal efficiencies were obtained as 36%, 95% and 97% for respectively COD, color and turbidity.The results show that higher efficiency could be achieved by electrocoagulation as a pre-treatment step.

KEYWORDS:

• Paper
• wastewater
• efficiency
• aluminum
• electrodes