Treatment of oily wastewater from drilling site using electrocoagulation followed by microfiltration

The present work deals with the utilization of electrocoagulation-microfiltration in batch mode for the treatment of oily wastewater containing oil, grease along with metals like Na, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Ni. Samples were pre-treated using the electrocoagulation by varying working parameters such as current density (20-80 A/m(2)), electrode distance (0.005-0.2 m) and initial pH (3.6-8.7). The concentration of oil and grease was reduced from 35 mg/L to 10.2 mg/L in just 20 min. Microfiltration was carried out using indigenously prepared ceramic membranes to remove these flocs generated during the electro-coagulation process at three different pressures of 98,196 and 194 kPa.