1897

Advances in Environmental Biology, 6(7): 1897-1901, 2012

ISSN 1995-0756

This is a refereed journal and all articles are professionally screened and reviewed ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Treatment of Dairy Industry Wastewater using an Electrocoagulation Process
1
H. Ghahremani, 2S. Bagheri, 3S.M. Hassani, 4M.R. Khoshchehreh
1
Young Researchers Club, Quchan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran
2
Department of Chemistry, Quchan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran
3
Department of Chemical Engineering, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran
4
Department of Chemical Engineering, Quchan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran

H. Ghahremani, S. Bagheri, S.M. Hassani, M.R. Khoshchehreh: Treatment of Dairy Industry

Wastewater using an Electrocoagulation Process

ABSTRACT

In this study, the treatment of dairy industry wastewater using an electro-coagulation process has been
investigated. The COD removal percentage was considered as the efficiency index of the procedure. This study
has been conducted with the aim of optimizing the factors affecting the process of COD reduction or removal
which include contact time (0 - 120 min), voltages (20, 10 and 30v), electrode gaps (2, 4 and 6 cm) and
electrode materials (iron, aluminum and stainless steel). It was observed that the removal efficiency is directly
proportional to the electrode material, contact time and voltage and inversely proportional to electrode gaps. An
optimal COD removal was achieved with the iron electrode and a time, gap and voltage of 120 min, 2 cm and 30
V, respectively.

Key words: treatment of wastewater, dairy industry, iron electrode, electrochemical.

Introduction A variety of different treatment processes is

Dairy industry wastewater is generally a mixture
of milk or other dairy products diluted with water.
Containing high level of organic materials, dairy
industry wastewater is considered to be one of the
most contaminated wastewaters and purification of
the same has always been challenging. Thus many
research studies have been conducted with this aim.
Dairy wastewater includes industrial waste, flushing
waste and waste from aqueous cooling systems.
Industrial waste may originate from washing milk-
carrying and -storing containers, bottles and glasses,
sterilizing depositories, delivery station floors and
other installations present, such as, pumps, boilers,
etc. Waste in pasteurization and sterilization units is
mainly composed of machine coolants.
Receiving waters can be affected by diary
wastewater with an increased rate of dissolved
oxygen depletion, a decrease in the pH level due to
the conversion of lactose to lactic acid in the
fermentation process, an increase of casein bed
deposit at acidic pH values, an increase in fungal
growth due to a PH drop, a destruction of marine life
due to the entry of cleansers and detergents from the
cleaning process. Therefore owing to the vast
dispersal of the dairy industry across the country of
Iran, a step must be taken toward treatment of the
produced waste to prevent pollution from damaging
our living environment [1].
being currently practiced such as; physical and
chemical processes, trickling filters, activated sludge,
rotating biological disc contactors, dissolved air
flotation and anaerobic purification lagoons. Due to
high COD removal and sludge production expenses,
as well as high energy costs, the electrochemical
treatment of dairy industry wastewater has grown in
importance [2-5]. Electro-coagulation is the process
of destabilizing suspended, emulsified or dissolved
contaminants in an aqueous medium by introducing
an electrical current into the medium during which
the surface charge of the colloidal particles reduces
to a point where they can overcome the vandervalce
forces in between and allow coagulation to occur [6].
The electrochemical process is characterized as
being easy to use, having simple equipment, being
easy to operate, having a good settling ability of
produced sludge, and being able to reduce operating
costs and to lower TDS in the wastewater compared
with standard chemical procedures [7]. This
procedure is used in the treatment of wastewaters
from the dairy industry, textile industry, restaurants,
laundries, municipalities and alcohol distillation
plants. Kan and his colleagues believe that three
main processes occur serially during EC which are:
(a) Electrolytic reactions at electrode surfaces.
(b) Formation of coagulants in the aqueous
phase.

Corresponding Author
H. Ghahremani, Young Researchers Club, Quchan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran
 1898
Adv. Environ. Biol., 6(7): 1897-1901, 2012

(c) Adsorption of soluble or colloidal pollutants
on coagulants, and removal by sedimentation or
floatation.
Materials and Methods
This research is a descriptive, analytical and
practical study carried out in order to investigate the
effect of a continuous electric current on the
pollution index (COD) in wastewater samples. A
1500-mL glass beaker was used as a reactor vessel.
After the addition of wastewater to the beaker, the
electric current flowed through different electrodes in
variable voltages and times. Before and after each
run, the COD value was determined. The wastewater
samples used in this study were taken from the
natural wastewater collection channel at Dr.
Movahed factory in Bojnourd Industrial City.
Aluminum, iron and stainless steel plates (15.0 x
4.0 cm) were used as electrodes and a 15% HCl (by
mass) solution was used to clean the electrodes
before beginning the experiment.
Electrode combinations were chosen as Fe-Fe,
Al-Al, St-St in this experiment. The experiments
were carried out separately at three voltage ranges
(10, 20 and 30 V) with a variable contact time for
each series of electrodes. One sample was taken
every 10 min from the beaker – considering the
selected contact times for these experiments – and
after filtration its COD value was determined using a
COD reactor ET125. Other tools used in the
experiment consisted of: an alternate/continuous
transformer (regulated DC power supply - model
8303) for providing power and a multimeter for
measuring voltage and current and also a magnetic
stirrer (VELP SCIENTIFICA MODEL)with a
stirring speed of 50 rpm for homogenizing. All
experiments were done at room temperature (around
20°C).
Wastwater Under Investigation:
Wastewater contamination charges may vary
during a day due to product variety, production
volume and the cleaning of containers, boilers,
floors, etc. Thus wastewater COD and BOD values
change during a day. For experiments to be more
accurate and less error-prone, a separate sample of
wastewater was used with each sample electrode.

Fig. 1: Flocs (coagula) formation during electro-coagulation process

Fig. 2: A view of an experiment performed using the electrochemical method

Table 1: Analysis of the raw wastewater samples collected from the factory for the aluminum, iron and stainless steel electrodes

Analysis of the collected raw wastewater Analysis of the collected raw wastewater Analysis of the collected raw wastewater
sample for the aluminum electrode sample for the stain steel electrode sample for the iron electrode

Reported value Wastewater Reported value Wastewater Reported value Wastewater

parameter parameter parameter
Dark color Dark Color Dark color
7.5 pH 7.4 pH 7.7 pH
13 T (oC) 15 T (oC) 14 T (oC)
1.2 DO (mg/L) 1.1 DO (mg/L) 1.2 DO (mg/L)
1960 EC (μs/cm) 1810 EC (μs/cm) 2200 EC (μs/cm)

 
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Adv. Environ. Biol., 6(7): 1897-1901, 2012

1596 COD (mg/L) 1350 COD (mg/L) 1605 COD (mg/L)

796 BOD (mg/L) 677 BOD (mg/L) 800 BOD (mg/L)
1871 TDS (mg/L) 1643 TDS (mg/L) 2050 TDS (mg/L)

Results and Discusion

Graph 1: Results obtained from COD removal at voltages and times under study with iron electrode.

Graph 2: Results obtained from COD removal at voltages and times under study with aluminum electrode.

Graph 3: Results obtained from COD removal at voltages and times under study with stainless steel electrode.

Graph 1 indicates that COD value of wastewater
has declined from 1605 to 285 with an increase in
contact time (to 120 min.) at 30 Volts. A COD
removal efficiency of 82% was obtained in this
condition. At the beginning of the graph one can see
a steep slope because organic materials are more
abundant early in the EC process. This is due to the
fact that generated iron hydroxides from the
corrosion of the anode form complexes with ions
occurring in the wastewater therefore rapidly
removing COD. As is illustrated in Graph 2, an 80
min. contact time and 20V voltage for aluminum
electrode led to a decline in COD value from 1506 to
446. COD removal efficiency in this condition is
equal to 71% whereas a COD removal efficiency of
79% was achieved by increasing contact time to 120
min and at a voltage of 30 V. The results in the above
graphs show that removal efficiency has increased
with an increase in applied voltage. In fact the
maximum and minimum removal efficiency was

 

Adv. Environ. Biol., 6(7): 1897-1901, 2012
obtained with iron and stainless steel electrodes
respectively, at the input voltage of 30 V. Density of
bubbles increases and their size decreases with an
increase in current density resulting in a greater,
faster and further removal of pollutants. A greater
amount of hydroxide flocs was produced by
increasing the electric current causing an efficient
COD removal. The graphs show an increase in COD
removal percentage with an increase in contact time
as per Faraday's Law of Electrolysis which states that
the mass of a substance deposited at an electrode
during electrolysis is directly proportional to the
quantity of charge passed through the electrolyte.
Therefore increasing the contact time in the
0.85
0.8
0.75
COD‫فذح دصرد‬
0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0.45
0.4
2 2.5 3 3.5
Graph 4: Analysis of the effect of electrode gaps on COD removal efficiency with iron electrode at 30 V, 120
min contact time and 500 rpm stirring speed
Graph 4 illustrates that applied voltage has been
increased proportionally with an increase in the gap
between each cathode / anode pair. The reason is
because solution resistivity increased as a result of
increased electrode gaps in a constant amount of
electrolyte. At 120 min. contact time, an increase in
electrode gaps from 2 cm to 6 cm resulted in a
reduction of removal efficiency from 82% to 69%
which is due to a reduction in the concentration of
ions and a consequent decrease in electrostatic
attraction.
Conclusion:
Considering the result, COD removal efficiency
is directly proportional to contact time and input
voltage and inversely proportional to electrode gaps.
The result also showed that removal efficiency has
increased to 82% with iron electrodes, 2 cm electrode
gaps, 120-min. contact time and 30V voltage. As a
final conclusion it can be said that electrocoagulation
is an efficient process for removing contamination
charge index (COD) and can be used as a fast, easy,
economical and low cost way needing less equipment
and limited space.
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