Electrochemical Treatment of a Polluted Sludge: Different Methods and Conditions for Manganese Removal

Abstract

Five laboratory experiments to analyze the removal of manganese from a contaminated sludge by electromigration were carried out. The experiments differed in the arrangement of the remediation cells and the remedial conditions (current intensity or voltage drop constant, use of ion‐exchange membranes, neutralization of basic environment at the cathode, and stirring in the electrode solutions). This was done in a way to compare the advantages of and differences between electrokinetic and electrodialytic remediation. Electrokinetic treatment was appropriate to remove 68% of the Mn from this polluted sludge when pH control was used in the cathode solution and a potential difference of 30 V was applied during 8 days.

Keywords:

• Manganese
• Electrodialytic remediation
• Electrokinetic remediation
• Contaminated sludge

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by ENDESA (Spain), Xunta de Galicia, Spain (Project PGIDT01MAM30101PR) and CONICYT, Chile (Project FONDECYT 1030366).