The study of removing the organic from wastewater by periodically reversing electrocoagulation

Electro-coagulation (EC) is an effective technique for decolorization and removing organics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color from the simulated pharmaceutical wastewater by the application of the EC technique with iron and aluminum electrodes, and periodically alternating power supply. Besides, the effects of various operational parameters including electrolysis time, electrolysis voltage, alternating period, distance between the electrode plates, and speed of stirring were also studied. Under the optimal conditions, the removal rates of color and COD could be up to 99.36 % and 92.54 %, respectively. As the results shown that the removal rates of color and COD have the same trend, and the different value is about 5%. The results show that using the method of periodically reversing electro-coagulation (PREC) can remove the ionic organic from the wastewater effectively.