Treatment of Sugar Industry Effluent Through SBR Followed by Electrocoagulation

Sugar industry effluent (SIE) is characterized as high organic load. The aim of present work is to treat SIE in sequential batch reactor (SBR). Effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on COD reduction was studied at instantaneous fill condition. Maximum 67.2% COD removal was achieved at HRT of 2.33 days (d) in 10 h of treatment. At optimum HRT of 2.33 days, the fill time (t(F)) of the effluent was varied to treat it, in which t(F) of 1.5 h was evaluated to optimum for maximum of 91.66% COD removal of initial COD of 4800 mg/dm(3) achieved in 10 h of treatment. The effluent treated in SBR was further followed by electrocoagulation (EC) using mild steel (MS) electrode. The initial COD of 640 mg/dm(3) was reduced to 77 mg/dm(3) at operating condition of current density 69.44 A/m(2) (2A) and treatment time (t(R)) similar to 90 min. The kinetics of degradation of SIE in SBR was also evaluated.