Treatment and toxicity reduction of textile dyeing wastewater using the electrocoagulation-electroflotation process

ABSTRACT

A pilot-scale study was conducted using the electrocoagulation-electroflotation (EC-EF) process to treat textile dyeing raw wastewater to evaluate treatment performance. The effects of some key factors, such as current density, hydraulic retention time (HRT), and removal of conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and color were investigated. The operating variables were current density of 0–300 A m⁻², HRT of 0–30 min, and a coagulant (anionic polyacrylamide (A-PAM)) dosage of 0–30 mg L⁻¹. Daphnia magna was used to test acute toxicity in raw and treated wastewater. Under the operating conditions without added coagulant, maxima of 51%, 88%, 84%, and 99% of conductivity, TSS, COD, and color were removed, respectively, with a HRT of 30 min. The coagulant enhanced removal of all wastewater parameters. Removal maxima of 59%, 92%, 94%, and 98% for conductivity, TSS, COD, and color were observed, respectively, with an optimal dosage of 30 mg L⁻¹ and a shortened HRT of 20 min. The 48 h-LC₅₀ D. magna test showed that the raw wastewater was highly toxic. However, the EC-EF process decreased toxicity of the treated samples significantly, and >70% toxicity reduction was achieved by the EC-EF process with the addition of 15–30 mg L⁻¹ coagulant, HRT of 20 min, and current density of 150–300 A m⁻². The pilot scale test (0.3 m³ h⁻¹) shows that the EC-EF process with added coagulant effectively treated textile dyeing wastewater.

KEYWORDS:

• Textile dyeing wastewater
• electrocoagulation-electroflotation (EC-EF) process
• Daphnia magna
• toxicity

Funding

This study was supported by the Korea Ministry of Environment “Global Top Project” (Project No.: GT-14-B-01-004-0).