Advanced treatment of biologically pretreated coking wastewater by a bipolar three-dimensional electrode reactor

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation is a promising technology for the treatment of bio-refractory wastewater. In this research, advanced treatment of coking wastewater which had previously undergone A/O (anaerobic–aerobic biological) treatment was investigated over Ti/RuO 2·IrO 2 anode, stainless steel cathode and coke powder particle electrodes which were packed into the electrodes in a bipolar three-dimensional electrode reactor (BTDR). The results showed that the removal efficiency of COD and ammonia nitrogen increased with applied current density. The main influencing factors of BTDR were evaluated by an orthogonal test, including reaction time, plate distance, current density, plate amounts and aeration flow rate. With reaction time of 60 min, plate distance of 1.0 cm, current density of 20 mA/cm2 and plate amounts of four pairs, most of the contaminants in coking wastewater can be remediated by BTDR, which can then meet the discharge limit for coking wastewater in China. For organic pollutants, 12 kinds of organic pollutants can be completely removed, and the removal efficiencies of 11 kinds of organic pollutants are between 13.3 and 70.3% by advanced treatment with BTDR. We conclude that there is great potential for BTDR in engineering applications as a final treatment for coking wastewater.