Use of a Dual Arrangement of Flow Cells for Electrochemical Decontamination of Aqueous Solutions Containing Synthetic Dyes

Abstract

The present study was motivated by innovative reports published by De Battisti and co-workers (Martinez-Huitle et al., Electrochim Acta 50:949, 2004; Martinez-Huitle et al., J Appl Electrochem 35:1087, 2005) in 2004, on the electrochemical oxidation of chloroanilic and oxalic acids using electrolytic flow cell with parallel plate electrodes. These studies were few of the pioneering studies employing different design and configuration of electrochemical flow cells. Therefore, in this work, the applicability of single flow cell and dual flow cell (serial mode of SFC) systems was investigated for removing organic pollutants. Galvanostatic electrolyses were performed using the two electrochemical systems for degrading synthetic dye effluents (Remazol Red RB and Novacron Yellow), employing as electrocatalytic materials: Ti/Pt and Ti/Pt–SbSn. The electrochemical treatment of dye solutions led to complete discoloration and partial organic matter removal at different operating conditions (current density and flow cell configuration). The influence of these parameters was examined, in order to compare the use of single flow cell or dual flow cell, based on the energy consumption and costs. From the results obtained using dual flow cell configuration; higher color and organic matter removals were achieved in short times of electrolysis, confirming that this treatment process can be a suitable pre-treatment alternative for depuration of textile effluents decreasing the energy consumed when a single flow cell is employed.