Removal of Phosphate from the Healthcare Wastewater Through Peroxi‑Photoelectrocoagulation Process: Efect of Process Parameters

Abstract

Among various anionic pollutants encountered in many wastewater efuents, phosphate is an important one. Excessive concentration levels of phosphate must be reduced from wastewater to prevent efects on aquatic ecosystems. In the present work, a peroxi-photoelectrocoagulation process was employed to determine the phosphate removal efciency. Bench-scale experiments were performed in an electrolytic cell. A total of thirty-seven experiments were conducted using full factorial design with center points to examine the efect of the process parameters, i.e., initial phosphate, pH, reaction time, hydrogen peroxide and current density for response variables of phosphate removal efciencies and energy consumption. The result obtained from the experiment runs shows that the percentage removal of phosphate ranges between 38.46–97.91% and the concentration of phosphate dropped up to the level of 0.12 mg L−1. The electric energy consumed in the treatment processes ranges between 0.27–5.94 kWh/g-P. The energy consumption per load of removed phosphate was found to depend on the initial phosphate concentration, pH, RT and current density.