Turbidity reduction by household scale electrocoagulation device

Abstract

Pollutant parameter that often exceed the standard is turbidity, then the turbidity parameter was the main concern in this research. The electrocoagulation method is an alternative for treating water without using chemicals. This study aims to reduce the turbidity and develop previous research on electrocoagulation methods into a pilot scale with a flow rate of 0.01 L/sec. The flow rate 0.01 L/sec illustrates the water requirements for one household. In this study the electrocoagulation method was tested by the variation of electrode plates 1, 2 and 3 pairs with 3, 5, 7 and 10 Volts to treat artificial sample water with an initial turbidity of 100 NTU made from sample of raw water from Cikapundung River as one of main drinking water sources in Bandung. The optimal conditions obtained in the preliminary study were retested with turbidity variations of 25, 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 NTU. The optimal condition of the electrocoagulation process is obtained in the variation of 2 pairs of plates with a voltage of 7 Volts and current density 23.53 A/m2. The variation can treat raw water with an initial turbidity up to 400 NTU until it reaches a quality standard with a final turbidity of 3.40 NTU and the percentage of removal is 99.15%.