Abstract
Background:
This study demonstrates the removal efficiency of phenol from aqueous solutions by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes and also investigates solution chemistry and polymeric natural organic matters on removal efficiencyObjectives:
The main aim of this work was to focus on the removal of phenol by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes.Materials and Methods:
This study was conducted in a bench scale. The Plexiglas cell was employed as an electrolytic reactor with dimensions of 12cm 12cm 16cm and a working volume of about 1.5 L was used to conduct the experiments, and a magnetic stirrer was applied for mixing (200rpm). Concentrations of phenol were determined by spectrophotometer according to the analysis of the color resulted from the reaction of phenol with 4-aminoantipyrine at 500 nm. Alginate was selected as a model of polymeric natural organic matter (PNOM).Results:
The results showed that optimum pH was 7 for the phenol removal. The highest removal rate was observed 91% for 25 mA/cm2 of the current intensity. Changes of ionic content (from 0.5 to2 mg/l) lead to an increase of the removal efficiency from 63% to 92%. The removal rate hasdecreased with increasing the initial phenol concentration. Adding alginate in the solution decreased the removal efficiency from 82% to 61%.Conclusions:
According to the results of this paper, electrocoagulation process by using aluminum electrodes is a promising process for decontamination of wastewaters containing high concentrations of phenol.Keywords
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© 2012, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.