Electrochemical Treatment of Heavy Metal-containing Wastewater with the Removal of COD and Heavy Metal Ions

Abstract

The use of electricity to treat water was employed for the first time in the UK a century ago, and since then has been considered a highly reliable method for wastewater treatment. In recent years, the demand for hydrogen gas as a valuable, clean energy source has increased considerably; from this point of view, the electrolysis of wastewater can meet the demand for energy during the process of treating wastewater. In this work, wastewater containing heavy metal ions has been treated by an electrochemical method which not only decreased the chemical oxygen demand value and lowered the number of heavy metals ions but also generated hydrogen throughout the process. A series of experiments were performed under optimum conditions of selected electrode materials, pH values, supply power, and working time. The results obtained indicate that by controlling the key factors of the process, a practical method can be achieved for wastewater treatment which also produces a noticeable amount of green energy. Differential pulse voltammetry measurements were used to determine the properties of an industrial wastewater source before and after treatment, while scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were applied to investigate the proficiency of the electrode material.