Electrocoagulation

Electrocoagulation (EC) is an electrochemical technology with wide range of application

that can effectively reduce the presence of several pollutants in water from heavy metals until
persistent organic pollutants (Garcia-Segura, Eiband, Melo, & Martínez-Huitle, 2017).
Electrocoagulation (EC), offer a cheaper method of tertiary treatment that does not rely on
chemicals or microorganisms, such as in chemical coagulation or activated sludge processes
(Perren, Wojtasik, & Cai, 2018). Instead, electrocoagulation uses metal electrodes to electrically
produce coagulants, thereby making the coagulation process simple and robust (Shen, et al.,
2020). The process of electrocoagulation function by dissolution of the sacrificial anodes to
release the active coagulant precursors into the solution while electrolysis takes place on the
cathode (Akarsu & Deniz, 2020). The most commonly used coagulants produced by EC are
formed by reaction of the metal ions, usually Fe2+ or Al3+, with OH– ions formed by electrolysis
to produce metal hydroxide coagulants (Perren, Wojtasik, & Cai, 2018).

A recent study of (Elkhatiba, Oyanedel-Cravera, & Carissimib, 2021) evaluated the

efficacy of electrocoagulation methods for the removal of microplastics using wastewater
sample. The experiment was performed with a current density (1.92 to 8.07 mA/cm 2), pH (2 to
7), microplastic size range (25 to 1500 μm), and electrolysis time (0 to 90 min) were the
variables used to assess the process. Using real wastewater samples, the removal efficiency of
microplastics was 96.5% by using a current density of 2.88 mA/cm2 and an initial pH of 4 to
obtain the lowest estimated operational cost (Elkhatiba, Oyanedel-Cravera, & Carissimib, 2021).
Another study performed by (Kim & Park, 2021) used electrocoagulation as a pretreatment
method for enhancing the removal of smaller and lighter microplastics. Experiment showed that
with regard to Al-based salts in the presence of microplastics, the smaller the microplastic
particle size, the higher the removal efficiency, ionic strength, and concentration of natural
organic matter, while the turbidity level had little influence on the removal efficiency of
microplastic particles. The water separability of coagulated microplastics was tested using mild
centrifugation at 160×g for 5 min, and after 30 minutes of electrocoagulation, inseparable
microplastics decreased by 90% with little change, thereafter, indicating that the flocculation
mechanism predominates between 0 and 30 min (Kim & Park, 2021). Therefore, the authors
reported that electrocoagulation can effectively remove microplastics from wastewater streams at
low operational costs.

References
Akarsu, C., & Deniz, F. (2020). Electrocoagulation/Electroflotation Process for Removal of
Organics and Microplastics in Laundry Wastewater.

Elkhatiba, D., Oyanedel-Cravera, V., & Carissimib, E. (2021). Electrocoagulation applied for
the removal of microplastics from wastewater treatment facilities.

Garcia-Segura, S., Eiband, M. M., Melo, J. V., & Martínez-Huitle, C. A. (2017).

Electrocoagulation and advanced electrocoagulation processes: A general review about
the fundamentals, emerging applications and its association with other technologies.
Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry.

Kim, K. T., & Park, S. (2021). Enhancing Microplastics Removal from Wastewater
UsingElectro-Coagulation and Granule-Activated Carbon withThermal Regeneration.
MDPI.

Perren, W., Wojtasik, A., & Cai, Q. (2018). Removal of Microbeads from Wastewater Using
Electrocoagulation. ACS Omega.

Shen, M., Song, B., Zhu, Y., Zeng, G., Zhang*, Y., Yang, Y., . . . Yi, H. (2020). Removal of
microplastics via drinking water treatment: Currentknowledge and future directions.