Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129

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Separation and Purification Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/seppur

Influence of operating parameters on phosphate removal from water

by electrocoagulation using aluminum electrodes
A. Attour a,b, M. Touati a, M. Tlili a, M. Ben Amor a, F. Lapicque c, J.-P. Leclerc c,⇑
a
Laboratoire de Traitement des Eaux Naturelles. Centre de Recherches et technologies des eaux, Technopole de Borj-Cédria, 8020 Soliman, Tunisia
b
Institut Supérieur des Sciences et Technologies de l’Environnement, Technopole de Borj-Cédria, Tunisia
c
Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, UMR 7274 CNRS – Université de Lorraine, 1 rue Grandville, B.P. 20451, Nancy, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Treatment of water containing phosphate by electrocoagulation has been studied in a laboratory batch
Received 18 July 2013 reactor. The effect of operating parameters on both phosphate removal efficiency and pH evolution has
Received in revised form 18 December 2013 been investigated. Influence of distance between electrodes, current density, initial pH, temperature
Accepted 21 December 2013
and conductivity has been extensively studied in a wide range of values. The results show that the
Available online 3 January 2014
removal efficiency depends on the electrical charges; the same efficiency is obtained with low current
density with long time of treatment, or higher current intensity with short treatment time. The time evo-
Keywords:
lution of the pH during the treatment strongly depends on the operating conditions but the final pH is
Electrocoagulation
Phosphate
more or less the same due to the buffering effect of AlðOHÞ3 =AlðOHÞ
4 mixture. Effects of the temperature,

Aluminum electrodes often disregarded in the literature shows that treatment rate is strongly increased with temperature
pH whereas conductivity near 1 mS/cm is enough to ensure reasonable treatment rate. The electrical energy
Energy consumption consumption (around 4 Kw/m3) is acceptable to achieve 90% of conversion but lower current density is
Temperature effect preferable because of the lower voltage drop.
Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction A complete review of these treatments including the advantages

Excess of phosphorus in water is responsible for several possi-
ble types of problem. In industries, excess of phosphate in process
water is responsible for progressive fouling of the pipes. Phosphate
is not supposed to be toxic for human being because of the reason-
able low concentration in the drinking water and aliments and be-
cause its presence in most cells and organisms. The major impact is
relative to environment since it is one of the major eutrophication
[1] for higher phosphate concentration. This phenomenon is
responsible for the dramatic growth of algae occurring in natural
water reserves. The growth in the human population and the rise
in water consumption have increased the efforts to safe and to pro-
tect all water resources. Phosphorus compounds came from vari-
ous sources but agriculture and cattle are the main direct and
indirect origins of its presence. In addition of the necessary reduc-
tion of discharge of chemicals wastes containing phosphorous,
treatment of water containing phosphorous is necessary. The dis-
charge limits are very strict in all countries: 0.5–1.0 mg/L in USA,
5 mg/L in India [2], 1–2 mg/L in France and 10 mg/L in Tunisia [3].
The three mains categories of treatments (physical, chemical
and biological) can be considered to eliminate the phosphorous.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jean-pierre.leclerc@univ-lorraine.fr (J.-P. Leclerc).
and disadvantages of each method for the case of phosphate has
been published by Yeoman et al. [4].
In recent years, investigations have been focused on the treat-
ment of wastewaters using electrocoagulation owing to the in-
crease in environmental restrictions on wastewater. Numerous
papers dealing with electrochemical pollutant removal in indus-
trial or synthetic effluents using iron or aluminum electrodes have
been published so far. Electrocoagulation is a simple and efficient
method for the treatment of many types of water and wastewater.
It has not been widely accepted because of the use of electricity
and the unjustified apparent complexity as compared to other
treatment technologies. Electrocoagulation technique uses a direct
current source between metal electrodes immersed in the water to
be treated. The electrical current causes the dissolution of metal
plates resulting in iron or aluminium cations into the wastewater.
The metal ions, at an appropriate pH, can form wide ranges of
coagulated species and metal hydroxides that destabilize and
aggregate the suspended particles or precipitate and adsorb dis-
solved or suspended contaminants [5].
The most widely used electrode materials in EC process are alu-
minium and iron because of the trivalent form of the metal. In the
case of aluminium, main reactions are as:
3þ
Anode reaction : AlðsÞ ! Al þ 3e ð1Þ

1383-5866/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2013.12.030
 A. Attour et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129
1 2. Materials and methods
Cathode reaction : H2 O þ e ! H2ðgÞ þ OH
2
Al3+ and OH ions generated by electrode reactions (1) and (2)
react to form various monomeric species, which finally transform
into Al(OH)3(s) according to complex precipitation kinetics.
3þ
Al þ 3H2 O ! AlðOHÞ3 þ 3Hþ
In the bulk solution, there is also possibility of precipitation of little
soluble aluminium phosphate as follows:
Al
3þ
þ PO3
4 ! AlPO4ðsÞ
Freshly formed amorphous Al(OH)3(s) ‘‘sweep flocs’’ have large
surface areas, which are beneficial for rapid adsorption of soluble
organic compounds and trapping of colloidal particles. Finally, these
flocs are separated from the liquid either by flotation upon the
action of gas bubbles (hydrogen and oxygen), either by settling
because of their higher density [6].
Electrocoagulation has been considered for a number of waste-
waters in a very broad range of nature and composition: in partic-
ular oil suspensions [7], wastes from textile industry [8,9], tannery
[10], food industries [11], arsenic [12] or heavy metal as chromium
for example [13] – a list far from exhaustive.
Examination of the available literature reveals that the capacity
and efficiency of electrocoagulation depends on the nature and ini-
tial concentration of the pollutants [14], as observed by Khemis
et al. [15] or Sanchez-Calvo et al. [16] and to some extents by the
design of electrocoagulation device and the flow conditions. The
papers relative to the treatment of effluents by electrocoagulation
are mainly focused on the influence on pollutant removal effi-
ciency of operating parameters including current density, pH, oper-
ating time, pollutant concentrations. Optimal parameters could be
determined to obtain higher pollutant removal rate with reason-
able energy consumption. Relatively few papers are devoted to
phosphorous removal. Some of the major contributions are gath-
ered in Table 1.
The phosphate concentration was chosen all the time equal to
100 mg/L except the work presented by Bektas et al. [20] who
investigated a concentration ranging from 10 to 200 mg/L. Distance
between the two electrodes was also unchanged at 5 mm. One
again only Bektas et al. [20] investigated value for this parameter.
Vasudevan et al. [2] published a paper on this subject covering in
details the effect of numerous operating parameters and effluents
composition. In particular they analyzed the effect of co-existing
anions on the final removal efficiency. Lacasa et al. [21] proposed
some mechanistic models for the two types of electrodes (alumi-
num and iron). They concluded that adsorption of phosphate on
the hydroxide is the major effect with iron whereas direct precip-
itation and adsorption coexisting with aluminum electrode. The
electrical consumption is lower using aluminum electrode.
Finally, the study of Mahvi et al. [22] has not been included in
the table since it concerns the removal of phosphate in wastewa-
ter. However it presents interesting analysis of the process includ-
ing the separation step between solid and liquid phase.
The aim of this paper is to study thoroughly the elimination of
phosphate by electrocoagulation using aluminum electrodes. A
large type and range of parameters have been studied and optimal
operating conditions are proposed. Special attention was has been
paid on parameters that have been not or little studied up to now.
In particular, the influence of temperature has been investigated
since local temperature may strongly vary from one country to an-
other. Moreover the effect of other minerals present in the water
on removal kinetics has been observed. Surface aspect of the
electrodes after treatment has been also qualitatively analyzed
for several operating conditions. Evolution of pH has been carefully
followed during all the experiments.
125
ð2Þ
2.1. Experimental set-up
Fig. 1 shows the experimental set-up. The electrocoagulation
experiments have been carried out in a jacketed batch reactor
ð3Þ 10 cm diameter and being 23 cm high. The liquid was stirred at
150 rpm with a magnetic stirrer (Fisher Bioblock). The stirring
speed is keeping low enough to avoid shearing of the flocs. The
temperature of the reactor was kept constant by the water circulat-
ing in the jacket and heating by a thermostatic bath. Its value was
ð4Þ
measured inside the reactor. The two electrodes of aluminum are
vertically immersed in the liquid for an active surface of 50 cm2
(5  10 cm2). Distance between anode and cathode was taken at
5 mm, but some preliminary experiments have conducted with
10 and 20 mm gaps. After each experiment and prior to the next
experiment, the electrodes were pumiced and degreased with
400 grit super fine sandpaper and rinsed with 0.1 M HCl and clean
water to avoid any effect due to the history of the electrodes. The
electrodes were connected to a direct current power supply (ALR
3002 M) delivering a current up to 2.5 A, with a voltage ranging
from 0 to 30 V. Electrochemical coagulation experiments were car-
ried out under galvanostatic conditions in the range 0.1–0.9 A.
Time t = 0 of run corresponded to switching on the current supply.
2.2. Solutions and chemical analysis
A phosphate synthetic solution of 100 mg P/L was prepared by
dissolving 0.439 g of potassium dihydrogénophosphate KH2PO4
(Prolabo) per liter of distilled water. The initial pH was adjusting
with 1 M NaOH (Chemi-pharma) or with HCl (Reagent grade ACS,
ISO Chemicals Developing and Manufacturing (CDM)) solutions.
To study the effect of the electrolyte support, sodium chloride
(Chemi-pharma) was added at various amounts, so its concentra-
tion varied from 4.5 mM to 25.5 mM.
A UV spectrophotometer (HACH DR/4000U) at 430 nm was used
for phosphate analyses in accordance with the standard van-
domolybdophosphoric acid calorimetric method [23] after separat-
ing the particles through the 0.45 lm mixed cellulose ester syringe
filters.
The conductivity was measured continuously using a consort
D292 conductimeter. pH and temperature measurements were
performed continuously using a pH meter (HANNA instruments,
pH 213).
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Influence of the electrodes gap
Fig. 2 shows the phosphate removal efficiency obtained for 3
different distances. The kinetics of abatement and the maximum
phosphate removal percentage increase when the gap is reduced.
The ohmic voltage drop is increased with the distance between
the two electrodes. Voltage has been recorded continuously during
the experiments. At steady state and for i = 10 mA/cm, it reaches
5.5, 7.9 and 13.3 for a gap of 0.5, 1 and 2 cm respectively.
They are several recent papers that confirm the effect of the
electrodes gap on the pollutant removal efficiency. During the
treatment of textile wastewater, Merzouk et al. [25], were mea-
sured a decrease of the turbidity removal when electrode gap is
larger. The optimal gap for the three distance tested (10, 20 and
30 mm) was found to be 10 mm as we observed in our experi-
ments. Recently, Anand et al. [26] observed that COD removal effi-
ciency decreased with an increase in electrode gap. Electrical
conductivity is inversely proportional to the distance between
126 A. Attour et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129

Table 1
Review of the major contributions dealing with treatment of phosphate containing in water by electrocoagulation.

References Type of electrodes Current Distance Anode Operating Initial Phosphorous

(anode/cathode) density between area time concentration removal
(mA/cm2) electrodes (cm2) (min) [PO3 efficiency (%)
4 ] (ppm)
(mm)
Irdemez et al. [17] 6 Pairs of aluminum electrodes 0.25–1 5 1500 20 100 52–90%
Irdemez et al. [18] 6 Pairs of iron electrodes 0.5 5 1500 36 100 93%
Vasudevan et al. [2] Steel/stainless steel 0.1–0.5 5 200 60 100 68–98%
Vasudevan et al. [19] Aluminum/stainless steel 0.2–2 5 200 30 100 68–99%
Bektas et al. [20] 8 Pairs of aluminum electrodes 2.5–10 3 1500 15 10–50 90% i = 5 mA cm2
100–200 90% i = 7.5 mA cm2
Lacasa et al. [21] 1 Pair of electrodes: aluminum or iron 0.1–5.0 9 100 100–500 27 99.6%

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up.

Fig. 3. Phosphate removal efficiency versus time for 5 different currents density
between 2 and 18 mA/cm2 (½PO3 4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, pHi = 7,
T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm).

Fig. 2. Influence of electrodes gap on the phosphate removal efficiency

(½PO3 2
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6,5 mM, pHi = 7, T = 30 °C, i = 10 mA/cm ).

Fig. 4. Phosphate removal efficiency versus electric charge for 5 different currents
the two electrodes. As the distance increases, the resistivity of the density between 2 and 18 mA/cm2 ð½PO34 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, pHi = 7,

solution increases, therefore, the amount of metal getting dis- T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm.

solved into the solution also decreases. Hence, the removal effi-
ciency decreases with an increase in electrode gap. Zhang et al.
[27] have estimated the effect of several electrode gaps from
10 mm to 60 mm on phosphate removal from landscape water.
The maximal phosphate removal efficiency decreased from 86.4%
to 63% except for a gap of 25 mm for which the efficiency reached
90%. The reason of this exception is not clearly explained.
3.2. Influence of current density
Current density is the most sensitive operating parameter of
electrocoagulation process. Fig. 3 shows the phosphate removal
efficiency versus time for 5 values of the current density between
2 and 18 mA/cm2. The kinetics is very sensitive to this parameter
and the treatment is faster when the current density is higher.
Many papers focused on the optimal conditions for the treatment
including time of treatment and operating current density. In fact
these parameters are linked together. Fig. 4 represents the phos-
phate removal efficiency versus the electric charge for the different
current densities. This representation shows that the kinetics is
affected by these parameters and several couples of operating time
and current density can be selected to obtain the same abatement
when the charge remains the same. However, with higher current
 A. Attour et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129 127

Fig. 5. pH versus electric charge for 5 different currents density between 2 and
18 mA/cm2 (½PO3
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, pHi = 7, T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm). Fig. 7. Phosphate removal efficiency versus time for different initial pH
(½PO3 2
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm, i = 10 mA/cm ).

density, the fast production of small bubble of hydrogen facilitates

the flotation. This is why, it is interesting to study the coupling
between electrocoagulation process and separation of solid and
liquid as it has been proposed by Zodi et al. [6]. Fig. 5 represents
the pH evolution during the treatment. The pH increased with time
and with appreciable effect of the current density, because of the
OH production flux rate at the cathode. When the pH attains
approximately 10, a stabilization is usually observed because of
the buffering effect of AlðOHÞ3 =AlðOHÞ4 mixture [13].
As already pointed out, one of the problems induced by using
aluminum as electrode metal is the formation of a passive oxide
film [24]. Fig. 6 shows several photos of the electrode surfaces after
treatment and under different current densities. For low current
densities, i.e. from 2 to 6 mA/cm2, we observe a white layer on
the surface of anodes (see photo a). With higher current density
coagulation and settling processes are faster and the deposit layer Fig. 8. pH versus time for different initial pH varied from 2 to 11
is less significant for medium current density (see photo b for (½PO3 2
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm, i = 10 mA/cm ).

10 mA/cm2), and there is no real layer below 14 mA/cm2 (see photo

c).
The higher current densities are also responsible for chemical
corrosion of the cathode due to intensive production of hydroxide
anions (see photo d).
3.3. Influence of initial pH
It has often been reported that the initial pH is one of the most
sensitive operating parameter during electrocoagulation treat-
ment. However, if they are numerous experiments in the literature
to analyze the effect of the initial pH on the final abatement of the
pollution, very few papers present the time variation of the pH for
a large range of initial pH. Fig. 7 shows the phosphate removal
efficiency for different initial pH. Except for the very low value of
pH = 2, an acid pH = 3 favors the kinetic of abatement because of
the predominant form of AlPO4(s). These results are in agreement
with the optimal initial pH value of 3 suggested by Irdemez et al.
[18]. Conversely, when pH increases both phosphate precipitation
and adsorption on aluminum hydroxides compete. The kinetics of
adsorption is slower than the kinetics of precipitation. When the
pH is increasing the formation of AlPO4(s), and Al(OH)3 decreased
and the abatement is limited.
The evolution of the pH along treatment is shown in Fig. 8. From
pH = 3–9, production of OH at the cathode increases progressively
the pH up to 10 which corresponds approximately to value of the
buffering AlðOHÞ3 =AlðOHÞ 4 mixture. When the initial pH is high

Fig. 6. Views of electrode surface at different current densities: white layer on the anode at low current densities (a) 2 mA/cm2 (similar aspect for i = 6 mA/cm2), (b) 10 mA/
cm2, (c) the film is not visible on the anode at 18 mA/cm2 (similar aspect for 18 mA/cm2) and (d) oxidation of the cathode (brown color) at 14 mA/cm2 and 18 mA/cm2. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
128 A. Attour et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129

Fig. 11. pH versus time for different temperature (½PO3

4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, pHi = 7,
[NaCl] = 6.5 mM, d = 0.5 cm, i = 10 mA/cm2).
Fig. 9. Phosphate removal efficiency versus time for different conductivities
(½PO3 2
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, pHi = 7, T = 30 °C, d = 0.5 cm, i = 10 mA/cm ).

Fig. 12. Phosphate removal efficiency versus electrical energy consumption

(½PO3
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, pHi = 7, T = 30 °C).
Fig. 10. Phosphate removal efficiency versus time for different temperatures
(½PO3 2
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, pHi = 7, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, d = 0.5 cm, i = 10 mA/cm ).

(i.e. 11), the formation of AlðOHÞ 

4 fixed the OH produced and the
pH of the solution decreased to the buffering value. At higher pH
values, the formation of hydroxide aluminum is more important
and can deposit on the anode surface. This leads to an increasing
ohmic drop (because of the inert, little conducting layer formed)
and an increase in the electrical consumption. Lower pH values
are thus preferable both from efficiency and maintenance point
of view. However, these results are very promising for the industri-
alization of the method since except for very high or very low
value, it is not necessary to adjust the initial pH to obtain full
abatement of the phosphate.

3.4. Influence of conductivity

It is well known that pollutant removal efficiency is improved
when conductivity is higher. However the impact has to be quan-
tified since it is affected by the effluent nature. Fig. 9 shows the
phosphate removal efficiency versus time for several conductivi-
ties upon NaCl addition. The impact on the kinetic is notable. In
particular when the conductivity is lower than 1 mS/cm, even
the final conversion is affected. At this level, it should be recalled
that the experiments have been conducted with synthetic solution
containing only phosphate. Real natural waters contain usually
several types of anions and cations with a natural conductivity
high enough to ensure high treatment rate.
3.5. Influence of temperature
The effect of temperature on electrocoagulation process is often
neglected in the literature. In industrial configuration, this process
Fig. 13. Voltage versus time for 5 different current intensities from 2 to 18 mA/cm2
(½PO3
4 0 ¼ 100 mg P/L, [NaCl] = 6.5 mM, pHi = 7, T = 30 °C).
is often run in few heating industrial premises. Depending of the
geographical location, temperature of functioning can strongly var-
ied from 15 °C to 40 °C in extreme cases (North of Europe and Sub-
Sahara area). This effect has been little studied by Vasudevan et al.
[19]. The authors observed a lower efficiency under 22 °C but they
just presented the final conversion. El-Naas et al. [28] evaluated
the effect of temperature during the treatment of from refinery
wastewater by electrocoagulation at two different temperatures,
25 and 40 °C. The observed an higher abatement on the removal
of sulfate and COD at 25 °C. They assume that the solubility of alu-
minum sulfates decrease with temperature and therefore, the pre-
cipitation of the aluminum sulfate is enhanced at lower
temperatures. Song et al. [29] noted that the color removal in-
creased slightly with the temperature in the range from 20 °C to
 A. Attour et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 123 (2014) 124–129
60 °C. The reason could be that with the increase in temperature
the mobility and collisions of the ions with the hydroxyl polymers
increases. Fig. 10 shows the kinetics of phosphate removal effi-
ciency for 4 different temperatures between 20 and 50 °C. We ob-
serve a strong effect of the temperature on the kinetics rate which
shown the positive effect of the temperature. The evolution of the
pH represented Fig. 11 which is lower at high temperature because
the formation of Al(OH)3 is favored and the concentration of OH is
thus lower. Even if that point has not been evaluated in the present
study, the temperature changed will also result in a variation of
surface tension phenomena, with probably different hydrodynamic
behavior of the suspended matter. In the presence of hydrogen
bubble, it will certainly affect the flotation efficiency.
3.6. Electrical energetic consumption
The electrical energy consumption was calculated in terms of
kwh per m3 of treated effluent using the equation given below:
U  I  t EC
E ðkwh=m3 Þ ¼
V [12] S. Zodi, O. Potier, C. Michon, H. Poirot, G. Valentin, J.P. Leclerc, F. Lapicque,
where U is cell voltage (V), I is current (A), tEC is the time of electro-
coagulation treatment (h) and Vi is the volume (L) of effluent to be
treated.
Fig. 12 shows the phosphate removal efficiency versus the
electrical energetic consumption. The cost, to remove the 70 first
percentage of phosphate, is acceptable with a maximum of
4 kwh/m3. In this regard low current density is to be preferred
since 90 of percentage removal have been obtained with less than
4 kwh/m3 at 6 mA/cm2. The energy consumption is non-constant
for a given electrical charge since the tension does not vary linearly
with the current density as illustrated Fig. 13. Moreover, the cell
voltage is time dependent because of the change in pH, even if in
the present case the variations are relatively small. This result con-
firms the conclusion obtained from Lacasa et al. [21] and based on
another analysis.
4. Conclusion
The treatment of water containing phosphate by electrocoagu-
lation using electrodes of aluminum has been studied in batch
reactor. Phosphate removal efficiency and the pH evolution versus
time have been investigated for a wide range of values of the oper-
ating parameters: distance between electrode, initial pH, current
densities and several conductivities. The better operating condi-
tions are an electrodes gap of 5 mm, an initial pH of 3 and a con-
ductivity of 3.2 mS, in these conditions the phosphate is totally
removed with a rapid kinetic rate. The results show that removal
efficiency depending on the electrical charge (time of treatment
and current densities are linked together). However, the electrical
energy consumption is lower with smaller current density because
of the tension drop at high current density. At lower values of pH,
the phosphate is removed by precipitation of AlPO4(s), whereas the
adsorption on Al(OH)3 is predominant when the pH increased. The
evolution of the pH is due to the formation of OH at the cathode.
The buffering effect of the AlðOHÞ3 =AlðOHÞ 4 mixture makes the
final pH more or less around 10 whatever the initial conditions.
The rate and the final abatement of phosphate is strongly improved
with the temperature.
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