Treatment of Petroleum-Based Industrial Wastewater Using Electrocoagulation Technology

Abstract

In the present study, electrocoagulation (EC) was used for the treatment of petroleum-based wastewater. The experiments were carried out using a continuous flow EC apparatus. Wastewater samples were taken from two different petroleum-based companies in East Coast and Melaka with an initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 16,000 ppm and 330 ppm, respectively. In this work, the current was varied from 1.0 to 4.0 A, the contact time was 5–20 min, and different electrode types (aluminium and stainless steel) were employed to achieve maximum COD removal. For medium COD wastewater (16,000 ppm), a maximum COD removal of 88% was achieved when the current, contact time and type of electrode were 2.0 A, 5 min, and aluminium, respectively. For the treatment of low COD wastewater sample (330 ppm), the performance of EC using aluminium as the electrode exhibited better COD removal than stainless steel.