Evaluation of waste medicine wrappers as an efficacious low-cost novel electrode material in electrocoagulation for the remediation of Coomassie Brilliant Blue from wastewater

Abstract

In present investigation a waste medicine wrapper comprised of aluminium metal was employed in the electrocoagulation (W-EC) process to treat Coomassie brilliant blue (CBB) dye wastewater. The findings revealed that at an optimum current density of 2.1 mA/cm2, pH of 7.0, 1 g/L of NaCl, charge loading of 129.6 C/L, and electrode gap of 1.5 cm, about 96.7 ± 2.2% decolourization of 25 mg/L of CBB dye was obtained during 15 min of electrolysis period. The removal of dye obeyed First-order rate kinetics (k1 = 0.35 min−1) with an electrical energy consumption of 0.15 kWh/m3. Further, around 54 ± 3.8% of chemical oxygen demand and 38.5 ± 4.3% total organic carbon removal was also obtained corresponding to 25 mg/L of initial CBB concentration. The FTIR revealed no leaching of plastic into the solution from the wrappers. The phytotoxicity of W-EC effluent on green gram revealed 6.6 and 13 −folds more increment in shoot and root length, respectively, than untreated influent. Thus, the utilisation of waste medicine wrapper directly as electrodes in the EC not only provides a sustainable step for waste management, but it can also help to minimize the treatment cost of the EC process.