754 © IWA Publishing 2012 Water Science & Technology | 66.

4 | 2012

Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment

by electrocoagulation using Fe electrodes
Mohammad Ahmadian, Nader Yousefi, Steven W. Van Ginkel,
Mohammad Reza Zare, Sajad Rahimi and Ali Fatehizadeh

ABSTRACT
Mohammad Ahmadian
In this study, treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater by electrocoagulation was investigated in
Social Development & Health Promotion Research
batch system using Fe electrodes. The effect of various variables such as electrode number, current Center,
Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences,
density and operating time was tested. Pollutant removal efficiency increased with increasing Kermanshah,
Iran
electrode number and operating time. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen
Nader Yousefi
demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS), and total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies using eight Department of Environmental Health Engineering,
electrodes at a contact time of 50 min and a current density of 10 A/m2 were 66, 62, 60, and 56%, School of Public Health,
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,
respectively. Higher electrode numbers will allow shorter operating times to achieve certain removal Iran

efficiencies. Also, removal efficiencies increased by increasing the current density; the highest Steven W. Van Ginkel
Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology,
removal efficiencies of BOD5, COD, TSS, and TN at a contact time of 50 min and a current density of Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University,
USA
25 A/m2 were 97, 93, 81, and 84%, respectively. The results also show that the reactor pH varies
Mohammad Reza Zare
directly with the current density; at 25 A/m2, the reactor pH increased from an initial value of 7.1 to Ali Fatehizadeh (corresponding author)
Environment Research Center,
7.7 after 50 min. The experimental results showed that the kinetics of BOD5, COD, TSS and TN
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS),
removal could be fitted adequately using a first order kinetic model (higher R 2). and
Department of Environmental Health Engineering,
Key words | electrocoagulation, iron electrodes, kinetic study, slaughterhouse wastewater School of Health, IUMS, Isfahan,
Iran
E-mail: Fatehizadeh@gmail.com

Sajad Rahimi
Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering),
Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran,
Iran

INTRODUCTION

Slaughterhouse waste is defined as wastewater from an abat-
toir, which consists of pollutants such as animal feces, blood,
and fat (US-EPA ). Slaughterhouse wastewater is a typical
source of pollution and is a serious environmental threat (Mah-
taba et al. ). The amount of water consumption per animal
slaughtered varies according to the animal and the process
used and varies between 1.0 and 8.3 m3. Values of 0.4–3.1 m3
per animal were reported by Claudia et al. (). Slaughter-
house wastewater contains high concentrations of suspended
and dissolved organic matter. Slaughterhouse wastewater
treatment is performed with a static granular bed reactor
(SGBR) (Al-Mutairi et al. ), coagulation and flocculation
and UV/H2O2 (Cao & Mehrvar ). The conventional treat-
ment method is biological treatment. Aerobic systems require
large space, maintenance, management, and energy for artifi-
cial oxygenation. On the other hand, anaerobic treatment is
often slow due to the accumulation of suspended solids in
the reactor, which leads to a reduction in process efficiency
(Masse & Masse ).
In recent decades, new processes for the treatment of
various industrial wastewaters with low operating costs
have been explored. Electrocoagulation is a treatment pro-
cess based on applying an electric field which destabilizes
and reduces the net surface charge on suspended and dis-
solved pollutants and allows for aggregation and removal
by sedimentation or flotation (Emamjomeh & Sivakumar
). In recent years, electrocoagulation has been effective
in treating paper mill effluents (Ugurlu et al. ), landfill
leachate (Ilhan et al. ), olive mill wastewater
(Adhoum & Monser ), poultry slaughterhouse and tan-
nery wastewaters (Kobya et al. ; Jing-wei et al. ),
textile dye wastewater (Merzouka et al. ).

doi: 10.2166/wst.2012.232
 755 M. Ahmadian et al. | Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment
Electrocoagulation can also remove mineral pollutants from
water and wastewater, such as fluoride (Hu et al. ),
heavy metals (Bazrafshan ) and nitrate (Malakootian
et al. ). The objective of this study was to evaluate the
efficiency of electrocoagulation on the removal of pollutants
from slaughterhouse wastewater using Fe electrodes by sys-
tematically testing the effects of electrode number,
operating time, and current density.
METHODS
Instruments
The electrocoagulation reactor is shown in Figure 1. The reac-
tor consisted of an electrocoagulation cell (14 × 12 × 10 cm)
made of Plexiglas with the cathode and anode in parallel
mode. All electrodes were 2.0 mm-thick iron sheets with a
total effective electrode area of 75 cm2. The electrodes were
connected to a DC power supply providing a current density
in the range of 5–25 A/m2 in monopolar connection.
Figure 1 | Electrocoagulation reactor schematic: 1. Reservoir; 2. Power supply; 3. Digital
voltmeter; 4. Digital ammeter; 5. Slaughterhouse wastewater; 6 and 7. Flat
steel cathodes and anodes; 8. Magnetic stirring controller; 9. Magnetic stirring
element.
Water Science & Technology | 66.4 | 2012
Wastewater characteristics
Wastewater samples were obtained from a slaughterhouse
located in the city of Kermanshah, Iran. At the slaughter-
house, samples were passed through a 1 mm sieve to
remove hair and large suspended solids. Samples were
then conveyed to the laboratory in about 1 h and stored at
W
4 C before starting the experiments. The main character-
istics of the raw slaughterhouse wastewater used in this
study were pH: 7.1 ± 0.3; 5-day biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD5) 2,060 ± 429; chemical oxygen demand
(COD) 2,770 ± 537; total suspended solids (TSS) 3,130 ±
541 and total nitrogen (TN) 101 ± 26 mg/L.
Test methods
The electrocoagulation of slaughterhouse wastewater was
investigated in batch system. The effect of electrode
number, operating time and current density were investi-
gated. All experiments were conducted at room
temperature. The volume of the wastewater in each run
was 1 L and the magnetic stirrer was adjusted to 250 rpm.
At the end of each run, the sample was filtered through a
0.45 μm paper filter and the filtrate was analyzed. Also,
pH changes during the electrocoagulation process were
evaluated.
Analysis
Analyses of slaughterhouse wastewater including BOD5,
COD, TSS and TN were carried out according to the stan-
dard methods for examination of water and wastewater
(APHA ). The pH was measured by a Hanna Instru-
ments pH meter. The COD and nitrogen contents were
analyzed with a Hach DR 2,500 Odyssey spectropho-
tometer. SPSS software was also used for data analyzed
and also, the variance test (one-way ANOVA) for compari-
son of means, and paired t-test for determination of
association between parameters.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Effect of electrode number and contact time
The effect of electrode number on BOD5, COD, TSS and TN
removal is shown in Figure 2. BOD5, COD, TSS and TN
removal increased with increasing electrode number and
contact time reaching 66, 62, 60 and 54% removal with
 756 M. Ahmadian et al. | Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment
Figure 2 | Effect of electrode number and contact time on pollutant removal (current density: 10 A/m2; initial pH: 7.1).
eight electrodes after 50 min (current density: 10 A/m2),
respectively, and BOD5, COD, TSS and TN concentration
decreased from 2,060 ± 429, 2,770 ± 537, 3,130 ± 541 and
101 ± 26 mg/L to 700 ± 183, 1,052 ± 206, 1,252 ± 216 and
47 ± 12 mg/L, respectively. The association between contact
time and BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal efficiency,
analyzed with paired t-test, was statistically significant
(P-value<0.001). Also results of the one way ANOVA
showed that the association between different electrode
number (four, six and eight electrodes) was statistically sig-
nificant (P-value<0.001).
The mechanism of the electrocoagulation process in
aqueous systems is inherently complex. It is generally
believed that there are two possible mechanisms involved
in the process: electro-flotation and electro-oxidation. Oxi-
dation and reduction of the electrochemical process occur
at the anode and cathode electrodes, respectively (Emamjo-
meh & Sivakumar ). Generally, the resistivity of the
electrode is inversely proportional to the cross-sectional
area. Higher cross-section area of the electrode provides
lower electrode resistivity, so electricity conductivity increases
during the electrocoagulation reaction. The results show
that, with increasing electrode number, pollutant removal
efficiency increases. This finding can be due to more
Water Science & Technology | 66.4 | 2012
consumption of energy, neutralization of surface charges,
and production of more flocs in a shorter time. These results
have also been confirmed by other studies (Malakootian
et al. ). In the electrocoagulation process, dispersed
organic particles are aggregated into large flocs and separated
from the liquid phase by sedimentation (Emamjomeh & Siva-
kumar ). With increasing contact time, sedimentation
increases due to increased flocs size with time (Niam et al.
). This result is confirmed by Jing-wei et al. () for treat-
ment of tannery wastewater by electrocoagulation.
Effect of applied current density
Figure 3 shows that BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal
increased with current density, reaching 97, 93, 81 and
84% removal at 25 A/m2 at a contact time of 50 min,
respectively. The BOD5, COD, TSS and TN concentration
decreased from 2,060 ± 429, 2,770 ± 537, 3,130 ± 541 and
101 ± 26 mg/L to 62 ± 13, 194 ± 38, 595 ± 103 and 17 ±
4 mg/L, respectively. The association between current den-
sity and BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal efficiency was
analyzed with paired t-test and was shown to be statistically
significant (P-value<0.001). Also, results of the one way
ANOVA show that the association between different
 757 M. Ahmadian et al. | Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment
Figure 3 | Effect of current density on pollutant removal (initial pH: 7.1, electrode spacing: 0.4 cm; electrode number: 8).
applied current density (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 A/m2) is statisti-
cally significant (P-value<0.001).
Current density is the most important parameter for
controlling the reaction rate in the electrocoagulation pro-
cesses because it determines the coagulant dosage,
whether in batch or continuous mode. The amount of coa-
gulated ions released from the sacrificial anode into
solution is directly affected by the current density.
The results of this study show that, with increasing
current density, pollutant removal efficiency increased.
Increasing the removal efficiency by increasing the
current density increases the charge loading. As charge
loading increases, the result is greater flocculation and
faster sedimentation of pollutants (Yetilmezsoy et al.
). This result concurs with results of Kobya et al.
() for treatment of poultry slaughterhouse waste-
waters by electrocoagulation.
An improvement in electrocoagulation performance
with an increase in current density can be explained by
taking into consideration Faraday’s law and the scarification
of the anode, and hence coagulant generation (Aoudj et al.
; Malakootian et al. ). Faraday’s law describes the
relationship between current density and the amount of
Water Science & Technology | 66.4 | 2012
anode material that goes into the solution:
itM
w¼
ZF
where w: transpose anode and dissolving (g/cm2), i: current
density (A/cm2), t: contact time (s), M: molecular weight of
anode material, Z: number of electrons involved in the oxi-
dation/reduction reaction and F: Faraday’s constant
(¼96,487 C/eq). In order to avoid excessive energy consump-
tion, the current density should be chosen based on optimum
pollutant removal efficiency (Emamjomeh & Sivakumar ).
The effect of electrocoagulation on pH
The effect of electrocoagulation on the wastewater pH is
shown in Figure 4. The pH increased gradually with contact
time and this increase was greater at the higher current
densities.
The electrocoagulation process is highly dependent on
solution pH (Malakootian et al. ). This study showed
that the pH of the wastewater increased during the electro-
coagulation process and the pH increased the most at the
 758 M. Ahmadian et al. | Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment Water Science & Technology | 66.4 | 2012

Kinetic study of electrocoagulation process

All processes related to purification of water and waste-

Figure 4 | Variation of pH with current density and contact time.
higher current densities. This increase depends on the
activity of anode and cathode during the electrocoagulation
process and is dominated by the cathode. The increase of
pH is attributed to hydrogen gas and OH formation at
the cathode (Bazrafshan ). Generally, variations in pH
during the electrocoagulation process depend on the type
of electrodes and the initial pH (Malakootian et al. ).
In this study, the pH increased from 7.1 to 7.7. Ilhan et al.
() have reported similar results for treatment of leachate
by electrocoagulation process.
water are done in a volume; this volume is called the
reactor. Variations in the combination and concentration
of materials in the reactor are the main factors in the puri-
fication of water and wastewater. These variations result
from hydraulic transfer of materials into and out of the
reactor as well as from reactions within the reactor. To
completely describe a reactor system and its design, reac-
tion rates that occur in the reactor must be specified as
these rates directly affect reactor size. Therefore, the
study of reaction kinetics to predict pollutant removal
rates is very important in designing and modeling the
treatment process (Tchobanoglous et al. ).
The kinetics of the electrocoagulation BOD5, COD, TSS
and TN removal reaction needs to be examined for estimat-
ing the time required for BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal.
A kinetic analysis was conducted by fitting the time-course
performance data with zero, first, and pseudo-second
order kinetic equations and calculations as shown in
Table 1 where rc is the rate of conversion, k0, k1, and k2
are reaction rate coefficients, t is time, and C is the final
concentration of the constituent in the liquid. The reaction

Table 1 | Equations and calculations of kinetic models for slaughterhouse wastewater treatment by EC process

Zero order First order Second order

dC dC dC
rc = = k0 rc = = k1 C rc = = k 2 C2
dt dt dt

Parameter Current density (A/m2) k0 R2 k1 R2 k2 R2

BOD5 5 21.69 0.94 0.016 0.98 1 × 105 0.98

10 25.98 0.91 0.023 0.97 2 × 105 0.96
15 30.97 0.92 0.031 0.99 4 × 105 0.95
20 34.38 0.89 0.045 0.98 8 × 105 0.81
25 36.06 0.87 0.062 0.94 2 × 104 0.61
COD 5 27.16 0.96 0.014 0.99 7 × 106 0.98
10 31.06 0.98 0.018 0.95 1 × 105 0.95
15 36.65 0.92 0.024 0.98 2 × 105 0.95
20 39.77 0.90 0.029 0.98 3 × 105 0.92
25 47.48 0.92 0.051 0.96 9 × 105 0.74
TSS 5 32.98 0.98 0.015 0.99 7 × 105 0.98
10 38.51 0.95 0.019 0.99 1 × 105 0.98
15 42.33 0.93 0.024 0.98 1 × 105 0.98
20 43.65 0.91 0.027 0.98 2 × 105 0.96
25 47.64 0.87 0.033 0.98 3 × 105 0.98
TN 5 0.89 0.93 0.012 0.97 2 × 104 0.97
10 1.04 0.87 0.016 0.93 3 × 104 0.94
15 1.25 0.91 0.021 0.97 4 × 104 0.95
20 1.37 0.89 0.026 0.95 6 × 104 0.85
25 1.47 0.89 0.032 0.95 9 × 104 0.82
 759 M. Ahmadian et al. | Kinetic study of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment
rate coefficients and R 2 values for each pollutant category
and current density are also summarized in Table 1.
The data were correlated well (higher R 2) by the first
order kinetic model, revealing the model can successfully
simulate the BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal in the elec-
trocoagulation at different current densities. According to
Table 1, the first order kinetic constant increased when
the applied current density was increased from 5 to
25 A/m2. The results of kinetic evaluation of the treatment
of slaughterhouse wastewater by electrocoagulation is in
agreement with the results obtained by Mameri et al.
() in a bipolar electrocoagulation reactor and by
Emamjomeh & Sivakumar () in a monopolar electro-
coagulation reactor.
According to Asselin et al. () electrochemical
coagulation operated under the optimal conditions involves
a total cost of US$0.71 per cubic metre and Masse & Masse
() stated that overall slaughterhouse treatment cost in
1995–1996 ranged from US$0.70 to US$1.60 per cubic
metre of wastewater.
CONCLUSION
In this research work, the treatment of slaughterhouse
wastewater by electrocoagulation was investigated in
batch system using iron electrodes. This study has
shown that application of higher current density and
longer operation time enhances removal efficiencies of
BOD5, COD, TSS and TN. It also indicated that the reac-
tor pH varies directly with the current density.
The experimental results showed that the kinetics of
BOD5, COD, TSS and TN removal could be fitted
adequately using a first order kinetic model (higher R 2).
This study showed that electrocoagulation is an efficient
technology for the treatment of slaughterhouse
wastewater.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial support for this study was provided by Kerman-
shah University of medical science under a research
project. Also appreciation is given to the Social Develop-
ment & Health Promotion Research Center who
supported this research.
Water Science & Technology | 66.4 | 2012
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