Influence of Experimental Parameters in the Treatment of Distillery Effluent by Electrochemical Oxidation

The electrochemical oxidation of distillery effluent was studied in a batch reactor in the presence of supporting electrolyte NaCl using Mixed Metal Oxide (MMO) electrode. The effect of operating parameters such as current density, initial pH, and initial electrolyte concentration on the percentage of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal, power consumption, and current efficiency were studied. The maximum percentage removal of COD was observed to be 84% at a current density of 3 A/dm(2)at an electrolyte concentration of 10g/l with an effluent COD concentration of 1000 ppm and at an initial pH of 6. The operating parameters for the treatment of distillery effluent by electrochemical process were optimized using response surface methodology by CCD. The quadratic regression models with estimated coefficients were developed for the percentage removal of COD and power consumption. It was observed that the model predictions matched with experimental values with an R-2 value of 0.9504 and 0.9083 for COD removal and power consumption respectively. The extent of color removal and oxidation of organic compounds were analyzed using UV spectrophotometer and HPLC.