Improved electrolysis of colloid-polluted wastes using ultrasounds and electrocoagulation

In this work, a new strategy for the treatment of wastes polluted with micelles is evaluated. It consists on the concentration of the pollutant by electrocoagulation, the pre-treatment of the concentrated sludge with US and the later application of an electrolytic oxidation. As it is well-known that the electrolytic treatment of diluted solutions generally fits well a first-order kinetic, this concentration is expected to lead to a more efficient process. This approach has been studied using oxyfluorfen polluted wastes. Electrocoagulation has been carried out for the concentration of a wastewater containing oxyfluorfen reducing its volume from 50.00 to 1.39 L. Once obtained the small volume of concentrated liquid waste, several treatments have been applied such as Ultrasonic irradiation or heat followed by electrooxidation. Results show that application of US has a very positive influence on the performance, in particular LF-US. Application time is also an important parameter and heating has a negative effect on results because iron hydroxide flocs compress and seal the pollutant inside making more difficult their destruction by the direct and indirect oxidation reactions.