Investigating the Combined Sensitivity Effects of the Electrodes Density and the Total Suspended Solids on the Turbidity Removal in an Electrocoagulation Reactor

Abstract

This paper aims to comprehend the sensitivity effect of the electrode density combined with the total suspended solids on the improvement of the turbidity’ removal. To this extent, three electro-coagulation lab-scale reactors (300 mm in length, 100 mm in width and 350 mm in height) equipped with aluminium made electrodes have been built to conduct the experiments with a test volume of 9 L. Consequently, the results have revealed that the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and turbidity are 54.65 %, 71.93% and 34.27% respectively for the reactor No.1. Regarding reactor No.2, the chemical oxygen demand, the total suspended solids, and the Turbidity's removal efficiency are 51.24%, 65.24% and 47.13%, respectively. Finally, the removal efficiencies in reactor No.3 are 54.65 %, 71.93% and 34.27%, respectively, for the chemical oxygen demand, the total suspended solids and the Turbidity, which led to considering implementing a full-scale electrocoagulation process in El Kerma wastewater treatment plant. Moreover, the results obtained have allowed developing statistically a quadratic polynomial model to describe the effluent turbidity. The model outcomes have showed an acceptable coefficient of determination with a significant corresponding probability of < 0.05 regarding the electrode density.