Evaluation of the Efficiency of Electrocoagulation for the Removal of Turbidity and Total Suspended Solids in Laboratory Greywater

Resumen

The present study aimed to optimize the removal of turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) through an electrocoagulation process assisted by a biocoagulant derived from Cicer arietinum, for gray water from a chemistry laboratory. To this end, a prototype electrocoagulation cell was constructed and implemented, with two aluminum electrodes and a steel cathode, applying a type of monopolar electrode configuration in parallel. The Response Surface Methodology with a Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to evaluate the significant effect of the biocoagulant dose, water pH, and current intensity on the optimization of removal efficiency. The results show that the optimal values of the operating factors for turbidity removal efficiency are a biocoagulant dose of 1,000 mg/L, a pH of 5.09, and a current intensity of 0.70 A, achieving a maximum removal of 95.20%. For TSS removal, a biocoagulant dose of 1,000 mg/L, pH of 6.18, and current intensity of 0.70 A are used to achieve a maximum removal of 92.89%.