Comparison of electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation for municipal wastewater treatment

Abstract

Municipal wastewater can include many pollutants that have an effect on the environment, so treatment is very necessary before discharge into water bodies and for further recycling in recreation and agriculture. As a result, in this study, municipal wastewater is treated using Electro Coagulation (EC) and Chemical Coagulation (CC), with comparisons of both processes. For EC, aluminum electrodes and iron electrodes were used at different voltages and times. Aluminum sulphate and ferric chloride were used in the CC, along with coagulant dosage and contact time. After treating the municipal wastewater for electrocoagulation, the maximum removal efficiency of COD, TOC, TDS, and BOD is 85%, 87%, 82%, and 81% for the aluminum electrode, respectively and 92%, 92%, 84%, and 88% for the iron electrode, respectively. For chemical coagulation, the maximum removal efficiency of COD, TOC, TDS, and BOD is 81.66%, 80.09%, 84.67%, and 77.08% for aluminum sulphate as a coagulant, and 86%, 83.90%, 87.73%, and 81.8% for ferric chloride as a coagulant. Electrocoagulation was found to be superior to chemical coagulation in this study. And Fe is a very promising electrode compared to Al.