Optimizing Distillery Effluent Treatment through Sono-Electrocoagulation: A Response Surface Methodology Approach

Abstract

This work is an effort to remediate rice grain-based biodigester effluent (BDE) by applying the sono-electrocoagulation (SEC) process using Iron as a sacrificial electrode to accomplish this process. A batch reactor is used for the investigation. The effect of the SEC process on the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color from the wastewater was studied by varying operating parameters including ultrasonic power (U), current density (j), initial pH (pHi), and electrolysis time (t) in the ranges of 20-60 W, 49.5-247.5 A/m2, 2-10 and 12-60 minutes respectively. The results obtained were optimized by using central composite design (CCD) which is a special feature of the response surface method (RSM). This tool is well applicable in the SEC process to explores the relationships between different varying operating parameters with two responses namely COD and color removal efficiency. The RSM is to use a sequence of designed experiments to obtain an optimal response. The analysis demonstrated that the quadratic regression model fitted well with SEC-generated data. Moreover, no significant difference was found between experimental and predicted data. The coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9995 and 0.9895 were observed for COD and color removal efficiency. Results indicated that the COD removal efficiency of 93% and color removal efficiency of 88% were found at optimum conditions U of 50, J of 198 A/m2, pHi of 7, and t of 48 minutes.