Electrocoagulation process for the post-treatment of anaerobically treated urban wastewater

Suitability of the electrocoagulation (EC) process for the post-treatment of anaerobically treated urban wastewater was assessed, in batch system employing real effluent from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize three important process parameters, namely current density, electrolysis time and initial pH. At the optimum conditions of pH 7.07, electrolysis time 18.0 min and current density 15.0 mA/cm2, chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity and phosphate removal efficiencies observed were 71.0%, 98.5% and >99.9%, respectively, which were very close to the model-predicted values. High removals of suspended solids (SS; 87.5%), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) (83.3%) and total coliforms (99.994%) were also obtained at the optimum conditions.