Removal of Suspended Solids and COD from a Textile Industry Wastewater Using Electrocoagulation and Advanced Treatment Process

Wastewater treatment and its management seems to be the key challenge in today’s perspective to protect our freshwater resources on sustainable basis. Electrocoagulation is considered to be a very effective and result-oriented technology solution in the sector of wastewater treatment. In present time, large-scale industries adopted the technique, as the chemical consumption becomes almost nil and the amount of sludge generation also considerably less. In this study, a series of experiments have been conducted on textile industry wastewater to investigate its performance. The pilot setup was fabricated with a set iron electrode with DC power supply. The electrocoagulation is followed by microfiltration and UV treatment unit. The optimum working pH range was found to be 5.5–7.5. The pH value of the effluent was significantly higher (pH > 9) than the working pH range. Hence, the pH adjustment has been done with diluted H2SO4 solution (1:1) to maintain effective range. In this study, the efficacy of removal of two important parameters TSS and COD are investigated and nearly 90% and 80% of removal, respectively, were observed. The effect of the time of electrolysis for optimum removal of TSS and COD has also been reported. In the extension of this study, the efficiency of the supplied current density can be investigated.