Removal and adsorption characteristics of polyvinyl alcohol from aqueous solutions using electrocoagulation

The study was to investigate the performance of electrocoagulation (EC) for the efficient removal of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) from aqueous solutions. Several parameters were evaluated to characterize the PVA removal efficiency, such as various electrode pairs, current densities, supporting electrolytes, temperatures, and initial electrolyte concentrations. The effects of the current density, supporting electrolyte, and temperature on the electrical energy consumption were also investigated. The experimental results indicate that a Fe/Al electrode pair is the optimum choice out of four different electrode pair combinations. The optimum current density, supporting electrolyte concentration, and temperature were found to be 5 mA cm(-2), 0.008N NaCl, and 298 K. respectively. The PVA removal efficiency decreased with increasing in the initial concentrations. The kinetic studies indicated that the EC process was best described using pseudo-second-order kinetics. The experimental data were also compared to different adsorption isotherm models in order to describe the EC process. The adsorption of PVA was best fitted by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. Thermodynamic parameters such as the Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy indicated that the adsorption of PVA on metal hydroxides was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic in the temperature range of 288-318 K. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.