Textile dye bath effluent contains high concentrations of organic dye, sodium chloride, and other chemicals which inhibit the activity of microorganisms during biological oxidation. Hence high concentrations of organic dye and total dissolved solids have to be removed considerably before biological treatment. In this paper, degradation of dye effluent and simultaneous generation of caustic soda in an electrochemical membrane cell was investigated. Experiments were carried out at different current densities and different flow rates using Ti/RuO2/IrO2 as anode and stainless steel as cathode. In the present study of dye effluent treatment the results showed that the electrochemical process could effectively remove COD and color by anodic oxidation (92.16% and 100%) and concentrate caustic soda from 40 to 210.28 g L -1 . Textile processing industries are widespread sectors in developing countries. Among the various processes in the textile industry, the dyeing process uses large volumes of water for dyeing, fixing, and washing. Thus, the wastewaters generated from the textile processing industries contain suspended solids, high amounts of dissolved solids, unreacted dyestuffs (color), and other auxiliary chemicals that are used in the various stages of dyeing and processing. The conventional method of textile wastewater treatment consists of chemical coagulation, and biological treatment followed by activated carbon adsorption. The conventional coagulation process generates a huge volume of hazardous sludge and poses a problem of sludge disposal. The biological treatment of textile wastewater shows low degradation efficiency because of the presence of biologically inert high molecular weight dyestuffs. 1,2 Hence many investigators are studying alternative oxidation methods such as ozonation, photocatalytic oxidation, and electrochemical oxidation. The photocatalytic oxidation experiments were conducted for Acid Blue 80, Acid Orange 7, Brilliant Orange K-R, and Reactive Orange 16. 3‐6 Electrochemically assisted photochemical degradation was also conducted to improve the degradation efficiency of the dye. 7 The ozonation process was studied for the removal of color and chemical oxygen demand (COD), however; this process showed less COD removal. 8,9 Researchers also investigated electrocoagulation methods for textile dye removal using aluminum or iron electrodes. 10‐14 Several researchers have studied the feasibility of electrochemical degradation of textile dyes using various electrode materials for wastewater treatment. Electrochemical degradation of different dye compounds was studied using titaniumbased DSA (dimensionally stable anodes) electrodes, platinum electrodes, diamond and metal alloy electrodes, and boron-doped diamond electrodes. 5‐18 The membrane processes can meet the requirements of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis (RO), which retain not only relatively small organic molecules but also ions from dye wastewater. Removal of auxiliary chemicals, salt, and color from dye wastewater can
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