Investigation of electrocoagulation process for the removal of phosphate: full- scale process optimization, operation cost and adsorption kinetics

The studies on phosphate removal methods that will respond to needs in terms of both cost and high recover efficiency are ongoing. Electrocoagulation is also one of these treatment technologies that have been successfully applied in the last few years. In this study, the basic mechanism, optimization parameters, cost calculation, kinetics and isotherms of electrocoagulation method in aqueous solutions are investigated. The maximum phosphate removal efficiency was obtained as 100% where electrode combination (Fe-SS), pH (7), current (9 mA/cm2), electrode distance (2 cm), phosphate concentration (25 ppm) and retention time (20 min). Operating cost of the electrocoagulation process was calculated as 0.94 $/m3. The obtained results also proved that second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model are correlated with electrocoagulation data.