Electrocoagulation Process Intensification for Disinfecting Water – A Review

Abstract

In the field of disinfecting water, if there is a process that has attracted huge attention from water treatment specialists it is the electrocoagulation (EC) process. Indeed, during the last two decades and thanks to its techno-economic benefits, this electrochemical technology has been the subject of many hundreds of researches and patents published throughout the entire world. The generally accepted tendency concerning the usage of the EC technique is to employ it as an integrated step with additional processes. In the field of killing pathogens, EC process is frequently inserted as a pre-stage before electrooxidation (EO) method in the treatment train. For such a combination, more important virus reduction is possibly reached via the collective actions of physical removal by coagulation/filtration, ferrous iron-based disinfection, and EO disinfection. In this context, much more research needs to be realized to distinguish among the electric field and cohesion contributions. Furthermore, more investigation has to be pointed on evaluating the more and more probable production of the hydroxyl radical (OH) during the EC technology. On the other hand, like in the chemical water disinfection, identical problems such as disinfection by-products generation have also appeared in the EC applications. More research needs to be pointed into such directions.