Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-12, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
A Review On: Comparison between Different
Techniques for Treating Wastewater
1
Mr. Rahul Bhargava,2 Payal Shivramwar,2 Shubham Panchal
1
Assistant Professor Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Indore Institute of Science &
Technology, Indore
2
Student, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Indore Institute of Science & Technology, Indore
Abstract: A reawaken interest in electro
coagulation has taken place by the search for
reliable , compatible, safe and versatile method for
the wastewater treatment. EC present a booming
and innovatory alternative process which operates
on the base of the principle that cations from
anodes are responsible for the increasing of the
coagulation of contaminants from an aqueous
medium. Wastewater contains high amount of
COD, BOD, Turbidity, SS etc. Various techniques
are available such as coagulation, adsorption
chemical oxidation etc. for treatment of wastewater
but highest results are found from the emerging
ELECTRO COAGULATION technique. EC can be
successfully used to treat numerous wastewater
which is discussed in the paper.
Keywords: Wastewater, Electro coagulation,
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical
Oxygen Demand (COD).
1. Introduction
Water and energy are the major concern of present
era. Due to increased pollution souces quality of
water become a crucial problem. Among some of
the promising methods based on electrochemical
technique is ELECTROCOAGULATION.
1.1 Coagulation
Coagulation is the most widespread and practical
method of removing colloidal solids from
wastewater. This is a process of destabilizing
colloids, aggregating them, and joining them
together for ease of sedimentation. It entails the
formation of chemical floccs that adsorb, entrap, or
otherwise bring together suspended matter, more
particularly suspended matter that is so finely
divided as to be colloidal.
1.2 Chemical Coagulation
Chemical precipitation in wastewater treatment
involves the addition of chemicals to alter the
physical state of dissolved and suspended solids
and to facilitate their removal by sedimentation.
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
The chemicals used in wastewater treatment
include Alum, Ferric chloride, Ferric sulfate,
Ferrous sulfate, and Lime. The handling and
disposal of the sludge resulting from chemical
precipitation is one of the greatest difficulties
associated with chemical treatment. These
chemicals are not only expensive, but, more
importantly, the net increase in the dissolved
constituents in the wastewater render it impractical
or impossible to reuse. Total sludge generated by
Chemical precipitation contains 49 percent added
coagulant. The added sludge generated by chemical
precipitation effectively doubles the sludge
disposal volume.
1.3 Electro-Coagulation
EC is an advanced economical water treatment
process that has been shown to be effective in
removing suspended solids, de polluting heavy
metals and breaking down emulsifiers. EC utilizes
methods that precipitate out large quantities of
contaminants in one operation, the technology is
the distinct economical and environmental choice
for industrial, commercial and municipal waste
treatment. The capital and operating costs are
usually significantly less than chemical
coagulation. The inherent disadvantages associated
with most chemical unit processes is that they are
additive processes. This problem is eliminated in
the Electro coagulation process. EC uses electricity
to precipitate the dissolved and suspended solids.
The total dissolved solids in the liquid usually
decrease by 27 to 60 percent. Electro coagulation
produces a cleaner water than either chemical
precipitation or sedimentation . The total sludge
generated by EC contains less than 0.5 percent
added coagulant. As discharge requirements
become more stringent , EC will become more
essential.
2. Literature Review
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-12, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

2.1 Chemical Coagulation Technique effective process.

E. Demirbas et al in the present study dealt with

treatment performances and operating cost of real
metalworking fluid wastewater (MWFW) using
chemical coagulation (CC). The optimum
coagulant dosage for COD and Turbidity removal
efficiencies from the MWFW was determined with
varying concentrations of alum, aluminium
chloride, ferric sulphate, and ferric chloride. COD
and Turbidity removal efficiencies in the coagulant
dosage range of 50–1000 mg/L were obtained as
65-97% and 49-81% for alum, 48-96% and 38-80%
for aluminium chloride, 43-92% and 36-76% for
ferric sulphate, and 55-93% and 41-77% for ferric
chloride, respectively. The aluminium-based
coagulants at a pH of 7.5 showed better
performances than ferric-based coagulants in terms Fig 1 . Combined effect of electrolysis time and
of COD and Turbidity removals. voltage on percentage of COD removal.

Dr. C.B. Shivayogimath et al. (July 2014)

Yasir Talib Hameed et al investigated Chemical
composition and flocculation efficiency for a
commercially produced tannin . Study was made to
see the effectiveness of CC process in COD and
turbidity removal. In the process Tanfloc was used
as coagulant which showed high turbidity removal
efficiency of approximately 90%, while removal
efficiencies of BOD and COD were around 60%.
examined and investigated the operating
parameters required such as electrolysis time,
applied voltage & pH . During the study it was
found that COD and Turbidity removal are 98.75%
and 97.82% in very short electrolysis time of 10
minutes applied voltage 7V and pH 6 and the
specific electric energy consumption of 0.00011
KWH/kg COD removal.

N B Prakash in the present study aims to treat a

sample of sea water for the removal of impurities
by various coagulants such as Alum, Ferric
Chloride and Ferrous Sulphate. The waste water
sample has been treated with different
concentrations of alum ranging between 0 and 200
mg/L. The pH of the water has been adjusted with
sulphuric acid/ lime from 5.0 to 8.0 and different
dosage of Alum from 60 mg/l to 180 mg/L to
obtain the optimum pH and alum dosage. The
optimum pH and dosage were observed to be 7.0 Fig 2 . Turbidity removal vs time at different
and 120 mg/L respectively. At this pH the colour voltages at pH 6
removal is more than 76% when the turbidity
removal is around 80 %. Dr. P.B. Kalburgi and Gouri Mirji (June 2014) in
electro coagulation examined the effect of PH,
electrolysis time and applied voltage. In this article
2.2 Electro Coagulation Technique aluminium and iron electrode is used as cathode
and anode which gives the greatest efficiency.
K Sahithi inc (2015) proposed use of iron Optimum value of applied voltage, pH, and
electrodes in EC process for treatment of textile Electrolysis time were 5V, 6, and 10 min
effluent in this paper. Individual and combined respectively. The batch experiment results the
effects of process parameters such as pH, voltage removal of COD and Turbidity to the extend of
and electrolysis time were studied over COD 92.6% and 95.2% respectively and the energy
removal. Maximum optimum condition for consumption was 0.0003 kwh/kg of COD removal.
99.347% COD removal efficiency were found to be
pH 7.23, voltage 8.77 V and electrolysis time of 2.3 Chemical Oxidation
84.29 min. Paper concluded that EC is a simple
operation and highly reliable which makes it a cost-

Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 2252

Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-12, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Abdel-Aal et al (2015) in this work studied a
comparison between fenton process and photo-
fenton oxidation process as advanced oxidation
processes for treatment of tannery wastewater. The
chemical oxygen demand (COD) is 554 ppm, total
organic carbon (TOC) is 170.8 ppm, total dissolved
solids is 50gl-1 and the pH is 3.5. The maximum
COD removal is (82.7%) for fentonʼs oxidation
process and for photo-Fenton process giving
maximum COD removal (90.1%) at pH 3 and time
2h.
Parveen Kumar et al (2011) in their study treated
pulp and paper industry effluent by advanced
oxidation. The photo-oxidation experiments are
performed under UV radiation in a slurry-type of
reactor with optimized treatment conditions being
pH 7.0, 0.5 g/L of TiO2 and 15 mm/L of H2O2 for
4 hours. The treatment for 4 hrs with
UV/TiO2/H2O2 removes the organic load of the
primary clarified effluent by 57.9 % in COD, 42.9
% in BOD, and 89.2 % in colour and of bio treated
effluent by 74.8 % in COD, 52.7 % in BOD, and
95.4 % in colour.
2.4 Adsorption
Mecabih Zohra et al (2014) used Puri.bent and
FeAl-PILC to fix the organic matter (OM) present
in urban wastewater. The maximum adsorption
capacity was 571.6 mg/g for puri.bent and 1120.69
mg/g for FeAl-PLC. The degree of OM removal
was 67% for puri.bent and 97% for FeAl-PILC.
Ademiluyi et al (2009) investigated the adsorption
and treatment of organic contaminants using
activated carbon from waste Nigerian bamboo . It
was found that Chemical oxygen demand (COD)
was reduced from an initial value of 378 mg/l to
142 mg/l for the first hour, 143 mg/l for the second
hour, 152 mg/l for the third and fourth hours, and
156 mg/l for the final hour.
3. Discussion
Various treatment methods although successful in
treating wastewater but failed in giving satisfactory
results.
Several advantages of EC process were seen over
other traditional coagulation technique. Process
requires simple equipment and is easy to operate
with sufficient operational latitude, wastewater
treated by EC gives palatable, clear, colourless and
odourless water, sludge formed by EC tends to be
readily settable and easy to de-water, it produces
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
effluent with less total dissolved solids (TDS)
content as compared with chemical treatments, has
the advantage of removing the smallest colloidal
particles because the applied electric field sets them
in faster motion, avoids uses of chemicals and so
there is no problem of neutralizing excess
chemicals and no possibility of secondary pollution
caused by chemical substances as when dealt with
chemical coagulation, the gas bubbles produced
during electrolysis can carry the pollutant to the top
of the solution where it can be more easily
concentrated, collected and removed, has no
moving parts thus requires less maintenance, EC
technique can be conveniently used in rural areas
where electricity is not available since a solar panel
attached to the unit may be sufficient to carry out
the process.
4. Conclusion
Minial national standards (MINAS) has been set
for output from treatment plants. Various
alternative treatment methods have been proposed
to match these standards. EC proves to be an
promising, reliable, and cost effective method. This
technology has been widely used for the treatment
of heavy metals, foodstuffs, oil wastes, textile and
dyes , organic matter containing wastewater. EC
has the capability to overcome disadvantages of
other techniques.
5. References
1. K Sahithi, V Sujatha, V Sridevi, (2015), Removal
of COD from textile effluent using electro
coagulation: Statistical design and modelling,
International Journal of Engineering &
Technology, Vol. 4, Issue 10, 2278-0181.
2. Gouri Mirji, Dr. P.B.Kalburgi, (2014), Study of
Electro coagulation Mechanism on dairy
wastewater for COD and Turbidity removal,
International Journal of Advance Engineering and
Research Development, Vol. 1, Issue 6, 2348-
4470.
3. Dr. C.B.Shivayogimath, Vijayalaxmi R Naik,
(2014), Treatment of dairy industry wastewater
using Electro coagulation Technique, International
Journal of Engineering Research & technology,
2278-0181.
4. Parveen Kumar, Satish Kumar, Nishi K. Bhardwaj
, Ashutosh Kumar Choudhary, (2011), Advanced
Oxidation of Pulp and Paper Industry Effluent,
International conference on environmental and
agricultural engineering, Vol. 15.
5. Abdel-Aal,E.A.1,Farghaly,F.E.1,Abdel-Wahed,El-
Shahat, (2015), International journal of scientific
research in agricultural science, 2345-6795.
6. Ademiluyi, Amadi, Amakama, Nimisingha Jacob,
(2009), Adsorption and treatment of organic
contaminants using activated carbon from waste
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-12, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Nigerian bamboo, J. Appl. Sci. Environ. Manage,

Vol. 13, 1119-8362.
7. Mecabih Zohra, Jerome Rose, Daniel Borschneck,
(2014), Urban wastewater treatment by Adsorption
of organic matters on modified Bentonite by Iron-
Aluminum, Journal of Encapsulation and
Adsorption Sciences.
8. C.B.Shivayogimath, Rashmi Jahagirdar, (2015),
Treatment of Sugar Industry Wastewater using
Electrocoagulation technique, International Journal
of Research in Engineering and Technology, 2321-
7308.
9. I.G. Rashed, (2005), Overview on chemical
oxidation technology in wastewater treatment,
Ninth international water technology conference.
10. A K A Rathi, (2002), Chemical Industry
wastewater Treatment using Adsorption, Journal of
Scientific & Industrial research, Vol. 61.

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