Removal of the Alphazurine FG Dye from Simulated Solution by Electrocoagulation

The removal of Alphazurine PG (AF) dye from water by an electrocoagulation process has been studied. The effect of some operational parameters, such as anode material, current density, initial dye concentration, pH of solution, conductivity, and inter-electrode distance, on the removal efficiency was investigated. Iron and aluminum were used as anodes in the electrocoagulation cell. It was found that the efficiency of the iron anode was better than that of the aluminum anode for AF removal. The factors that affected the removal efficiency were the current density and the initial dye concentration. The removal efficiency increased from about 35% at 25 A m(-2) to about 97% at 100 A m(-2), during 4 min of electrocoagulation. The results exhibited pseudo-first-order kinetics for AF removal by electrocoagulation. In addition, a mathematical model was successfully established for predicting the removal efficiency. A comparison between the model results and experimental data gave a high correlation coefficient (R-2 = 0.9925), which indicates that the model is able to predict the removal efficiency of AF.