Organic and inorganic pollutants removal from tannery effluent using electrocoagulation technique

Appusamy Muthukrishnaraj; Semmedu Selvaraj Kalaivani; Arularasu M. Visagamani; Manikandan Ayyar; Arumugam Kosiha; Ayyar Dinesh; Govindaswamy Padmapriya; Subramanian Rathinavel; Kandasamy Padmavathi; Mohamed Hashem; Hassan Fouad; AbuZar Ansari

doi:10.1515/zpch-2023-0393

Article

Organic and inorganic pollutants removal from tannery effluent using electrocoagulation technique

Appusamy Muthukrishnaraj , Semmedu Selvaraj Kalaivani , Arularasu M. Visagamani , Manikandan Ayyar , Arumugam Kosiha , Ayyar Dinesh , Govindaswamy Padmapriya , Subramanian Rathinavel , Kandasamy Padmavathi , Mohamed Hashem , Hassan Fouad and AbuZar Ansari

Published/Copyright: December 19, 2023

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From the journal Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie Volume 238 Issue 3

Abstract

Electrocoagulation is an efficient treatment for the concurrent elimination organic and inorganic contaminants from tannery wastewater. The batch electrocoagulation investigations were carried out using mild steel and aluminium as sacrificial anodes and stainless steel as the cathode. Various operating constraints, such as the electrolyte pH, realistic current density, electrolysis time, effluent concentration and supporting electrolyte concentration were appraised to study their effects on electro-coagulation efficiency. The maximum Total Organic Carbon (TOC) removal has been observed was 90 % and 77 % under optimum operating conditions, and the maximum chromium removal has been recorded was 99 % and 90 % using mild steel and aluminium anodes respectively. The experimental data was also fitted with the first order kinetic model. The experimental data were investigated with the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. The result shows that the experimental data fitted with the Langmuir isotherm model, with a rate of confidence of 0.98, using mild steel as an anode. The solid sludge and the liquid samples were characterized using the SEM (scanning electron microscopy) EDX (energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry), FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectrometer) and UV–Visible (Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy) analyses. All experimental results show that mild steel was an efficient anode, for the instantaneous elimination of organic and inorganic contaminants from tannery wastewater.

Keywords: adsorption isotherm; chromium removal; electrocoagulation; tannery wastewater; TOC removal

Corresponding authors: Appusamy Muthukrishnaraj, Department of Science and Humanities (Chemistry), Faculty of Engineering, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, 641021, India, E-mail: muthukrishnaraj@gmail.com; and Manikandan Ayyar, Department of Chemistry, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, 641021, India; and Centre for Material Chemistry, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, 641021, India, E-mail: manikandan.frsc@gmail.com

Funding source: King Saud University

Award Identifier / Grant number: RSPD2023R680

Research ethics: Not applicable.
Author contributions: Appusamy Muthukrishnaraj, Semmedu Selvaraj Kalaivani, Arularasu M. Visagamani, Manikandan Ayyar - Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing Original Draft, Writing- Review, Visualization; Arumugam Kosiha, Ayyar Dinesh, Govindaswamy Padmapriya - Investigation, Supervision, Project administration, Writing- Editing; Subramanian Rathinavel, Kandasamy Padmavathi, Mohamed Hashem - Resources, Project administration, Writing- Editing; Hassan Fouad, AbuZar Ansari - Conceptualization, Software, Resources, Investigation, Writing- Editing.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Research funding: This work is funded by Researcher supporting project number (RSPD2023R680), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Data availability: None declared.

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Received: 2023-10-12

Accepted: 2023-11-19

Published Online: 2023-12-19

Published in Print: 2024-03-25

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/zpch-2023-0393

Keywords for this article

adsorption isotherm; chromium removal; electrocoagulation; tannery wastewater; TOC removal