Electrochemical removal of pollutants from agro-industry wastewaters

Electrocoagulation was investigated for the treatment of agro-industry wastewaters, namely, meat processing, cereal products, food beverages and abattoir. Initial studies were carried out to check the performance of each of the agro-industry wastewaters (in terms of COD removal). The total cost (including, electrical power consumed, chemicals and consumption of electrodes) of the treatment varied between $ 0.95 and 4.93 m(-3), Abattoir wastewater resulted in higher COD removal of 85-86%. Subsequent studies were performed in details on the selected abattoir wastewater. Bipolar mild steel electrode gave higher soluble COD removal (82%). Likewise, percent soluble COD removal as a function of pH and conductivity confirmed no need of acidification and electrolyte addition. The coupling of electrocoagulation with flocculation process resulted in effective removal of organics (82% total COD removal), inorganics (with the exception of nitrogen), pathogen destruction and solids and turbidity removal. Thus, electrocoagulation-flocculation process can be envisaged as an effective treatment process for decontamination of agro-industry wastewaters. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.