Treatment of a dairy effluent by classical electrocoagulation and indirect electrocoagulation with aluminum electrodes

Classical electrocoagulation and indirect electrocoagulation were applied to an artificial dairy effluent, by imposing a 0.2 A current intensity and varying the treatment time. The influence of the supporting electrolyte and the initial pH on the turbidity, phosphates and organic matter removals was studied. The results showed that optimum removals were reached at pH 7 with calcium chloride as supporting electrolyte. The post-electrocoagulation showed that the treated effluent can be reused during 45 h. The turbidity and phosphates results of electrocoagulation with open circuit were almost identical than that of classical electrocoagulation, but that of organic matter remained weaker.

Automated summary

By applying classical electrocoagulation and indirect electrocoagulation to an artificial dairy effluent, the study found that optimum removals were achieved at pH 7 with calcium chloride as the supporting electrolyte. The treated effluent can be reused within 45 hours, and the results showed similar turbidity and phosphates removal between electrocoagulation with open circuit and classical electrocoagulation, with the latter showing weaker removal of organic matter.