Perspectives of electrochemical oxidation parameters in PRW treatment

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation as an efficient route of advanced electrochemical oxidation process AEOP had been successfully applied for the treatment of real petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW). The electrochemical oxidation was performed using batch electrochemical reactor with carbon felt anode to be compared with β-PbO2 anode. However, these anodic materials have higher oxygen evolution over potential and poor electrocatalysts for parasitic reactions with low cost. The experimental work considers a scope of operative and design parameters that influence the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of wastewater of a real national oil refinery effluent. Accordingly, a well-designed reactor accomplished to treat wastewater samples of 500-510 mg/L initial COD to study the effect of anode material, current density, and temperature on COD removal and oxidation kinetic. The results showed that the COD removal efficiency exhibits an exponential behaviour with the applied current density of more than 10 mA cm−2 indicating first-order reaction kinetics, and the reaction rate constant accurately estimated. Moreover, the impacts of pH and agitation speed on reaction rate constant were also studied.