(89e) Challenges and Opportunities of Electrocoagulation for Refinery Application: Case Study with Chicken Processing Plant Water and Fleet Wash Water

Due to the limited clean water resources of our planet, an urgent need exists for efficient technological development to treat wastewater for re-use. Several water treatment methods and instruments are currently available that partially achieve this goal. The cost and treatment efficiencies depend on the instrument type used and their application. Of these techniques, electrochemical methods, such as electrocoagulation (EC), can still provide the most efficient and economic service. EC works through in-situ formation of coagulants when anodes (e.g., iron, aluminum, copper, or titanium) are sacrificed electrochemically. Generally, direct current is applied through the EC cell. Research has been performed over decades using this process to successfully treat multiple types of wastewater. In this presentation, our experimental results on EC-treatment of chicken processing plant water and fleet wash water demonstrate how this may be accomplished. The floc produced during treatment was also examined using common materials characterization techniques (e.g., FTIR, XRD, and SEM-EDS). This work also illuminates challenges and opportunities necessary to make this technique viable for industrial application.