The Effectivity of Aluminum Electrode for River Water Purification Using Electrocoagulation

Abstract

Electrocoagulation process is expected to be widely applied not only in wastewater treatment but also in water purification. In this work, electrocoagulation process was used for clean water treatment. The effectivity of aluminum electrode in the electrocoagulation process has been investigated. The water samples used in the experimentation were obtained from the Bengawan Solo river. The samples were characterized to have a normal pH, high turbidity of 388,33 NTU, high organic matter shown from the KMnO4 value of 52,46 mg/L, alkalinity value 79,16 mg CaCO3/L, hardness value of 180 mg CaCO3/L and iron content of 4,59 mg/L. A set of experiments have been carried out to investigate the percentage of removal of water parameters using electrocoagulation processes compared to those with chemical coagulation processes. The chemical process was carried out with a jar test of alum dosage variation. In the electrocoagulation process 10 aluminum electrodes were used with an area of 100 cm2 at which all electrodes were mounted in series, with variations in time and current density. Jar test and electrocoagulation test result, both, show significant improvement of water parameters indicated by a high percentage of removal of turbidity, iron content and KMnO4 number. However, removal of hardness has not shown significant result, even in the electrocoagulation process of hard water.