Wastewater treatment using sono‑electrocoagulation process: optimization through response surface methodology

Abstract

The hybrid treatment processes are one of the hot topics in wastewater and industrial efuent treatment, especially in the highly polluted wastewater can be treated efectively using the combined processes. The present study is to treat the waste water using a hybrid sono-electrocoagulation process (SEC), and the efects of operating parameters such as current density (0.3 to 1 A/dm2 ), initial efuent pH (4 to 10), electrolyte concentration (1 to 6 g/L) and inter-electrode distance (1 to 3 cm) on % chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, % color removal, and power consumption were studied. The operating param eters used for hybrid SEC for the treatment of wastewater were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). The quadratic regression models with estimated coefcients were developed for the % removal of COD, color, and power consumption. It was observed that the model predictions matched with experimental values with an R2 for % COD removal, % color removal, and power consumption. The central composite design was selected in this study because of its efciency concerning the number of runs required for ftting a second-order response surface model. The maximum removal of COD—97.50% and color—100% was observed with the minimum power consumption—0.55 kWh/m3 for the treatment of wastewater using the hybrid SEC process