Continuous treatment of paper mill effluent by electrocoagulation for holding time analysis

Abstract

This paper presents the potential of continuous electrocoagulation operation for the treatment of paper mill effluent. The electrocoagulation experiments were carried out based on the batch study for holding time analysis. Process performance was assessed in terms of chemical oxygen demand, color, total dissolved solids, and total organic carbon. Continuous electrocoagulation experiments were performed at constant pH 7.45, conductivity 7.72 mS/cm2, electrode distance 1.5 cm and current density 10.35 mA/cm2 with flow rate varied between 0.1 to 0.6 L/min. Flow rate 0.2 L/min with 120 min of holding time was an optimum condition in which removal efficiencies were 82.5%, 90%, 92.5%, and 84 % for COD, Color, TDS, and TOC, respectively.