Carbon and energy footprint of electrochemical vinegar wastewater treatment

Emine Esra Gerek,A Savaş Koparal,Seval Yilmaz,Ömer Nezih Gerek,B Kaźmierczak,J Danielewicz,M Kutyłowska,K Piekarska,H Jouhara

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20172200051

Emine Esra Gerek, A Savaş Koparal + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20172200051

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Abstract

Electrochemical treatment of wastewaters that are rich in organic compounds is a popular method, due to its acidic nature that avoids biological treatment. In many cases, the pollution hazard is considered as the chemical oxygen demand (COD) from active carbon, and the success of the treatment is measured in terms of how much this specific parameter is reduced. However, if electricity is used during the treatment process, the treatment “itself” has manufacturing and operational energy costs. Many of the studies consider energy utilization as a monetary cost, and try to reduce its amount. However, the energy cost of the treatment also causes emission of carbon at the energy producing side of the closed loop. This carbon emission can be converted into oxygen demand, too. Therefore, it can be argued that one must look for the total optimal carbon efficiency (or oxygen demand), while reducing the COD. We chose a highly acidic wastewater case of vinegar production, which is a popular food product in Turkey, to demonstrate the high energy consumption and carbon emission problem of the electrochemical treatment approach. A novel strategy is presented to monitor total oxygen demand simultaneously at the treatment and energy production sides. Necessity of renewable energy utilization and conditions on process termination points are discussed.

Highlights

Treatment of wastewater is applied for eliminating biological or chemical hazardous materials
Electrochemical treatment experiments were conducted over real Vinegar Production Plant wastewater samples that were obtained from a large factory in Eskişehir
A detailed plot is provided in Figure 2, where the chemical oxygen demand (COD) values at the treatment side is drawn blue and the equivalent oxygen demand of the electrical energy production is drawn red

Summary

Introduction

Treatment of wastewater is applied for eliminating biological or chemical hazardous materials. A thorough classification of treatment strategies for different targets is presented in [11]. From this categorization and due to various other reports, it can be seen that electrochemical treatment is a popular method that is used for food production wastewaters [1–4]. Elimination of the oxygen demand from acidic environments, such as the vinegar wastewater, prohibits a successful utilization of biological treatment tools. Various membrane structures sometimes quickly spoil in the acidic environment prior to a successful treatment. These observations leave the electrochemical approach as a reasonable alternative [1]

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Conclusion