Removal of organic matter from water using ultrasonicassisted electrocoagulation method

What is it about?

Organic matter (OM) is commonly occur in freshwaters, and it poses a threat for health and environment. For instance, high OM concentrations increase the sludge volume and cost of the treatment process in turn. Remediation of water or wastewater from OM has thus become an important issue for the treatment industry. Electrocoagulation (EC) is one of the preferred techniques of treatment for remediation of water from OM and other polluting chemicals, as it utilises simple and easy to run machines and tools, it requires less working area in comparison with conventional methods, and it is more rapidly pollutant separation than other methods. EC technique could be described by passing an electric current through sacrificial electrodes to produce metal hydroxides that separate dissolved contaminants from aqueous phase. On the other hand, the EC method has a limited efficiency in the treatment of high OM concentrations. The present study is thus intended to develop a new technique that combines an EC reactor with an ultrasound (US) field to remediate water from OM. The EC reactor, in this study, was made from four aluminium plats (500 cm2 in gross area) and plastic container (1 L in volume). The operation of this combined method was optimised for the effects of key factors, such as the pH of solution, electrodes gapping, and current density. The obtained results proved that the US-EC technique removed 97.50 % of OM after 5.0 minutes of US irradiation, 20 minutes of electrolysing at current density 4.0 mA. cm−2, initial pH 7 and gap between electrodes 5.0 mm.

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Why is it important?

The purpose of application of the US irradiation is to breakdown the OM into simple formations that can be, then, handled by the EC reactor. The effects of the US on OM is belong to the ability of the US to elevate both temperature and pressure within the solution being treated, which leads to degrade the OM into simple formations [36]. It is noteworthy to mention that as these two techniques, EC and US, do not need chemicals to complete the treatment process, this new combined method could be an eco-friendly alternative for traditional chemical methods [16]. For future researchers, the EC- US will be made a smart unit by supplying it with electromagnetic sensors