Treatment of Sugar Industry Effluent Through SBR Followed by Electrocoagulation

Abstract

Sugar industry effluent (SIE) is characterized as high organic load. The aim of present work is to treat SIE in sequential batch reactor (SBR). Effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on COD reduction was studied at instantaneous fill condition. Maximum 67.2% COD removal was achieved at HRT of 2.33 days (d) in 10 h of treatment. At optimum HRT of 2.33 days, the fill time (tF) of the effluent was varied to treat it, in which tF of 1.5 h was evaluated to optimum for maximum of 91.66% COD removal of initial COD of 4800 mg/dm3 achieved in 10 h of treatment. The effluent treated in SBR was further followed by electrocoagulation (EC) using mild steel (MS) electrode. The initial COD of 640 mg/dm3 was reduced to 77 mg/dm3 at operating condition of current density 69.44 A/m2 (2A) and treatment time (tR) ~ 90 min. The kinetics of degradation of SIE in SBR was also evaluated.