Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112

www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Decolourisation of simulated reactive dyebath effluents

by electrochemical oxidation assisted by UV light
V. López-Grimau *, M.C. Gutiérrez
INTEXTER (Institut d’Investigació Tèxtil i Cooperació Industrial), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,
c/ Colom 15, 08222 Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain

Received 8 February 2005; received in revised form 17 March 2005; accepted 21 March 2005
Available online 12 May 2005

Abstract

This study is focused on the optimisation of the electrochemical decolourisation of textile effluents containing reac-
tive dyes with the aim of making feasible—technically and economically—this method at industrial scale. Coloured
waters were treated in continuous at low current density, to reduce the electrical consumption. Ti/PtOx electrodes were
used to oxidize simulated dyebaths prepared with an azo/dichlorotriazine reactive dye (C.I. Reactive Orange 4). The
decolourisation yield was dependent on the dyeing electrolyte (NaCl or Na2SO4). Dyeing effluents which contained
from 0.5 to 20 g l
1 of NaCl reached a high decolourisation yield, depending on the current density, immediately after
the electrochemical process. These results were improved when the effluents were stored for several hours under solar
light. After the electrochemical treatment the effluents were stored in a tank and exposed under different lighting
conditions: UV light, solar light and darkness. The evolution of the decolourisation versus the time of storage was
reported and kinetic constants were calculated. The time of storage was significantly reduced by the application of
UV light.
A dye mineralization study was also carried out on a concentrated dyebath. A TOC removal of 81% was obtained
when high current density was applied for a prolonged treatment with recirculation. This treatment required a high elec-
trical consumption.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Electrochemical cell; Colour removal; Mineralization; Reactive dye; Dyeing electrolyte; Textile wastewater

1. Introduction the order of mg l
1) can be sufficient to cause a signifi-

The textile industry produces large volumes of waste-
water in their dyeing and finishing processes. These efflu-
ents have common characteristics as their high
colouration since a small amount of residual dye (of
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 93 739 8247; fax: +34 93
739 8272.
E-mail address: lopez@etp.upc.edu (V. López-Grimau).
cant visual effect.
The high consumption of reactive dyes, mainly in the
cotton industry, increases this environmental and aes-
thetic problem, due to their low degree of exhaustion1
(60–90%). Therefore, an important percentage of the
dye (10–40%) remains in its hydrolysed and unfixed
1
Exhaustion: the amount of dye taken from the dyebath by
the fibre, yarn or fabric being dyed.

0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.03.076
 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112
form in the exhausted dyebath or is removed in the
washing liquors.
Reactive dyes, as well as many of textile dyes, are
only partially removed under the aerobic conditions of
the conventional biological treatment, mainly by
adsorption on the activated sludge. As biological treat-
ment is insufficient to remove the colour and to accom-
plish with current regulations, the application of specific
treatments is required. There are different techniques to
achieve colour removal, among them the most used are:
activated carbon adsorption (Malik, 2004), membrane
filtration (Koyuncu, 2002; Jhawar et al., 2003), coagula-
tion–flocculation processes (Carvalho et al., 2002;
Allegre et al., 2004) and treatment with ozone (Koch
et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2004).
These technologies have been applied at industrial
scale, offering a good colour removal, but they have as
a common factor its high cost. Different research groups
are working at laboratory and pilot plant scale in diverse
new methods: use of low cost adsorbents (Sanghi and
Bhattacharya, 2002), selection of microorganisms able
to degrade dyes (Máximo et al., 2003; Sen and Demirer,
2003), application of advanced oxidation processes—
Fenton and Photo-Fenton reactions, H2O2/UV light sys-
tems and heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation—
(Arslan-Alaton et al., 2002; Torrades et al., 2004) or
development of electrochemical decolourisation (Shen
et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2003).
The electrochemical decolourisation could be done
by reduction or by oxidation. In the case of reduction,
the chromophore of azo dyes is broken to generate
two amino groups (Bechtold et al., 2001). In the second
case, the indirect oxidation by hypochlorite ions gener-
ated in a brine solution using a graphite rod as anode
is reported (Vijayaraghavan et al., 2001). The electro-
chemical oxidation of dyes can also be assisted by pho-
tocatalysis (Zhang et al., 2003).
During the dyeing process with reactive dyes, the
addition of high concentrations of an electrolyte is nec-
essary to obtain a better fixation and exhaustion. Gener-
ally, an amount of 50–80 g l
1 of a salt is added as
electrolyte, being NaCl or Na2SO4 the most common.
This salt also acts as electrolyte during the electrochem-
ical treatment.
In our previous studies, electrodes constituted by
titanium/platinum oxides (Ti/PtOx) were employed to
discolour simulated dyehouse effluents with reactive
dyes (Gutiérrez et al., 2001, 2002). The treatment was
applied until the chromophore structure was broken
and it was stopped before reaching mineralization. The
decolourisation obtained with these electrodes was
highly dependent on the dyeing electrolyte contained
in the dyehouse effluents: NaCl or Na2SO4, as indicated
previously. Thus, when NaCl was used, the electrochem-
ical treatment of the dyeing effluents provided a 90–95%
of decolourisation at a current density of 12 mA cm
2.
107
However, when the effluents simulated a dyeing carried
out with Na2SO4, the current density necessary to reach
a 90% of decolourisation was 40 mA cm
2. The better
efficiency of the treatment in the presence of NaCl was
attributed to an indirect oxidation of the dye by Cl2,
ClO
and other oxidising species formed from the oxi-
dation of Cl
.
The main objective of the current work is to optimise
the operating conditions of the electrochemical treat-
ment with Ti/PtOx electrodes. The application of the
electrochemical treatment to mineralization is studied
briefly, although it is not considered from an applied
point of view. In fact, to remove organic matter, this
technique is much more expensive than biological treat-
ment. This work is mainly based on the application of
the electrochemical process as a previous treatment to
break the large reactive dye molecules since biological
treatment is not able to destroy them. Specifically, the
electrochemical treatment is employed to destroy the
chromophore structure of these dyes. When the effluents
do not contain NaCl, a slight amount of this electrolyte
is added to improve the cost of the decolourisation pro-
cess. This study is also focussed on the irradiation of the
treated effluents with solar light or ultraviolet light after
the electrochemical process, which allows to reduce the
current density and makes the treatment attractive from
an economical point of view.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Simulated reactive dyebath effluent
The exhausted reactive dyebath wastewater from a
cotton fibre dyeing plant usually contains a 10–40% of
the initial dyestuff (in their hydrolysed form) and a
100% of the auxiliary chemical initially added to the
reactive dyebath liquor. Synthetic spent dyebath effluent
was prepared according to the industrial cotton fibre
dyeing procedure. Simulated dyebaths were prepared
with an azo/dichlorotriazine reactive dye manufactured
by BASF, which commercial name is Procion Orange
MX-2R (Colour Index Reactive Orange 4). The chemical
structure of the dye is shown in Fig. 1.
To establish the experimental conditions, several
industrial reactive dyeing effluents were analysed (pH,
SO3 Na
OH
Cl
N N N
N N
NaO3S
CH 3 N
NaO3S Cl
Fig. 1. Chemical structure of C.I. Reactive Orange 4.
108 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112
conductivity, dyeing electrolyte and dye concentration)
and an average of these values was selected. Also,
NaOH was selected to hydrolyse the dye in order to sim-
ulate the work conditions of the new automatic addition
systems used in diverse mills, instead of a larger amount
of Na2CO3 in powder, traditionally employed.
For the decolourisation study, the concentration of
the reactive dye selected was 0.1 g l
1. Prior to use, the
dye solution was hydrolysed to boiling with sodium
hydroxide (Flucka) at pH 12. It was then cooled to room
temperature and the pH was adjusted to 9 with hydro-
chloric acid (Panreac) or sulphuric acid (Scharlau),
depending on the electrolyte selected: sodium chloride
(Scharlau) or sodium sulphate (Scharlau), respectively.
Finally, the amount of electrolyte necessary to reach a
conductivity of 35 000 lS cm
1 was added (20 g l
1 of
NaCl or 25 g l
1 of Na2SO4).
After hydrolysis, the dyebath effluent prepared had
the following environmental parameter values: 32 mg l
1
of TOC; 59 mg l
1 of COD; 3500 mg Pt–Co l
1 of col-
our; 35 000 lS cm
1 of conductivity and pH 9.
The mineralization study was carried out on an efflu-
ent containing a dye concentration of 1 g l
1 (194 mg l
1
of TOC; 311 mg l
1 of COD; 25 000 mg Pt–Co l
1 of
colour; pH 9 and 35 000 lS cm
1 of conductivity
adjusted with NaCl) in order to evaluate the efficiency
of the electrochemical treatment to remove organic
matter of highly concentrated reactive dye effluents.
2.2. Experimental plant
The treatment of the simulated reactive dyehouse
effluents was conducted in an electrolytic cell, which
was undivided. The cathodes were constituted by tita-
nium and the anodes were made of titanium, covered
by platinum oxides. The total surface area of each elec-
trode was 486 cm2. The volume of the vessel was 1 l. The
cell was able to treat up to 50 l h
1, which allows its use
at industrial scale.
The experimental plant was constituted by the elec-
trochemical cell, the pump to feed the system and the
deposit to store the treated wastewater. This plant
operated continuously, and the flow rate was fixed at
25 l h
1. The source supply allowed to regulate the cur-
rent among 0 and 25 A. The voltage was variable among
0 and 40 V, depending on the current applied and on the
conductivity of the effluent. The electrical consumption
was measured continuously during the treatment.
When the electrochemical process was carried out at
low current densities, the wastewater was stored in a
tank after the treatment and was exposed to different
lighting conditions (UV light, solar light and darkness)
in order to achieve the decolourisation. The UV light
source was one 40 W fluorescent tube (Philips TL
40 W/08) which emitted at 254 nm. This lamp generated
an average light intensity on the reaction vessel surface
of 1 mW cm
2 at 1 m of distance from the lamp.
2.3. Analytical measurements
Decolourisation was calculated from the initial and
final dye concentrations (ci and cf respectively) by mea-
suring their absorbance at the maximum dye absorbance
(488 nm). Decolourisation was reported in %:
ðci
cf Þ
D ¼ 100 
ci
Absorbance measurements were carried out with a UV–
visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-240 SP 1750
model). The dye absorbance has a linear behaviour ver-
sus the concentration according to the equation:
Abs ¼ 28.176  c
0.006 ðR2 ¼ 0.9999Þ
where c is the dye concentration expressed in g l
1.
The total electrical consumption of the electrochemi-
cal system was indicated in Wh l
1 and was calculated
from the quotient between the electrical consumption
measured (in Wh) and the volume treated.
The percentage of dye mineralization was evaluated
from the measurements of TOC carried out along the
experiment with a total organic carbon analyser (Shima-
dzu TOC-5050 A):
ðTOCi
TOCt Þ
Dye mineralization ð%Þ ¼ 100 
TOCi
where TOCi corresponds to the initial value and TOCt is
the value obtained at time t.
2.4. Kinetic evaluation
After the electrochemical treatment, there was an
increase of the colour removal depending on the lighting
conditions and on the time of storage. First-order reac-
tion kinetics were assumed and the decolourisation rate
constants were determined from the slope of the semi-
logarithmic plot of colour (peak absorbance at k =
488 nm) versus exposition time at the different lighting
conditions, in accordance with the kinetic equation:
lnðAbs=Abs0 Þ ¼ k d  t
where kd is the first-order decolourisation kinetic con-
stant expressed in h
1.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Influence of the dyeing electrolyte on the colour
removal
The influence of the dyeing electrolyte on the decolo-
urisation is shown in Fig. 2a, where colour removal and
 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112
Fig. 2. (a) Effect of dyeing electrolyte on the colour removal
(initial dye concentration: 0.1 g l
1, pH 9). (b) Effect of pH on
the colour removal (NaCl-effluents).
electrical consumption are plotted versus current
density. At a current density of 40 mA cm
2, a total
decolourisation was obtained immediately after the elec-
trochemical treatment when the synthetic effluent was
prepared with NaCl (NaCl-effluent) and a high yield of
colour removal (91%) was also reached when the effluent
was simulated with Na2SO4 as dyeing electrolyte
(Na2SO4-effluent).
At lower current densities, the effect of the electrolyte
on the decolourisation was much more significant: the
difference was of the order of 45–70%, being much more
favourable in the case of chloride. A 95% of decolouri-
sation at a current density of 12 mA cm
2 was reached
in NaCl-effluents, whereas Na2SO4-effluents achieved a
similar result only when they were treated at
40 mA cm
2. This fact implies an important saving of
the electrical consumption in the case of NaCl-effluents
with respect to the treatment of Na2SO4-effluents:
12.4 Wh l
1 versus 44.1 Wh l
1, respectively.
During these experiments there was a slight increase
of the pH (0.2–0.3 pH units). In this sense, the influence
of pH was studied in the range 5–11 (Fig. 2b) and it was
verified that decolourisation results were almost not
dependent on the pH.
It is obvious that the presence of chloride ions
improved the yield of decolourisation, which can be
attributed to the action of oxidising species generated
on the anode by chloride oxidation. This fact meant that
at least a 45–70% of the dye was destroyed by an indirect
oxidation (Vlyssides et al., 1999).
109
Vijayaraghavan et al. (2001) generated hypochlorite
ions on graphite anodes to oxidise reactive dyes. Their
results showed a clear dependence from the pH: this
treatment caused a significant pH increase from 4.5 to 8.
When a hypochlorite solution was added to our sim-
ulated effluents, decolourisation was verified to be also
highly dependent on the pH. A 100% of decolourisation
was reached at pH 5 in 1 min whereas at pH 9 the
decolourisation was only a 12% after 10 min and a
19% after 60 min.
Consequently, in the case of the electrochemical
treatment with Ti/PtOx anodes, beside of the oxidation
of dye with hypochlorite ions (originated by the chloride
ions anodic oxidation), there are additional reactions of
dye oxidation which probably occur through the action
of free chlorine and highly reactive radicalarian species
as Cl, Cl2
, ClOH
(Hepel and Luo, 2001).
Furthermore, the Cl radicals can also be produced
by photochemical reaction. Thus, the UV light induces
the homolytic breaking of chlorine bonds formed during
the electrochemical treatment to generate new Cl radi-
cals which will continue the dye oxidation. In this way
an evolution of the decolourisation should be observed
by exposition to solar light of the effluents partially
decoloured. In fact, this evolution will be discussed in
Sections 3.3 and 3.4.
3.2. Influence of NaCl concentration on the colour
removal
Different amounts of NaCl (from 0.1 to 10 g l
1)
were added to Na2SO4-effluents before their electro-
chemical treatment at 24 mA cm
2 in order to improve
their decolourisation yield. The addition of 10 g l
1 of
NaCl allowed to reach the almost complete decolourisa-
tion (97%) immediately after the treatment. High colour
removal levels were also obtained when the chloride con-
centration was decreased. In this sense, it was sufficient
to add 0.5 g l
1 of NaCl (0.3 g l
1 of Cl
) to achieve a
92% of decolourisation. Bellow this chloride concentra-
tion the decolourisation yield fell down to 40%.
In this sense, it must be considered that the water
used in the dyeing process already contains a certain
amount of chloride, which depends on the geographical
area where the company is placed. In most of cases, the
chloride concentration contained in the supplied water is
sufficient to obtain a high level of decolourisation after
the electrochemical treatment. Otherwise, a small addi-
tional amount of NaCl must be required when the dye-
ing is carried out with Na2SO4 as electrolyte.
3.3. Influence of solar light on the colour removal
As indicated, after the electrochemical oxidation of
effluents, an evolution of the decolourisation was
observed by exposition of the treated samples to solar
110 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112
100
(a)
90
Colour removal (%)
80
70
60
6 mA cm-2
50
3 mA cm-2
40
100
(b)
90
Colour removal (%)
80
70
60
12 mA cm-2
50
6 mA cm-2
40
0 2 4 6
Time after treatment (h)
Fig. 3. Evolution of the decolourisation after the electrochem-
ical treatment of samples exposed to solar light. Electrolyte: (a)
20 g l
1 NaCl, (b) 25 g l
1 Na2SO4 + 1 g l
1 NaCl.
light (Fig. 3). The rate of this evolution was dependent
on the current density applied during the electrochemi-
cal treatment, on the time of storage and on the electro-
lyte. The increase of the decolourisation under solar
light exposition was only observed in samples which
contained chloride ions.
As is shown in Fig. 3a, NaCl-effluents reached a total
decolourisation when they were stored several hours
under solar light even if they were only partially decol-
oured by the electrochemical treatment. When the sam-
ples (NaCl-effluents) were treated at 6 mA cm
2, a 97%
of decolourisation was obtained after 3 h of storage
under solar light, whereas effluents treated at 3 mA cm
2
needed 10 h to reach a similar result and 13 h to obtain
de complete decolourisation.
The addition of 1 g l
1 of NaCl to the Na2SO4-
effluents improved the yield of the electrochemical treat-
ments carried out at low current densities, as it was
reported in the previous section. This small chloride
concentration allowed the decolourisation advance
when the samples were exposed to the solar light for
several hours (Fig. 3b). Under those conditions, when
the effluents were treated at 12 mA cm
2, a total decolo-
urisation was reached after 14 h of solar light exposition,
whereas the effluents treated at 6 mA cm
2 showed a
79% of decolourisation in the same time of storage. In
this case, a 92% of colour removal was obtained after
24 h of storage.
The decolourisation rates obtained were of pseudo-
first order, in other words, the decolourisation reactions
followed a first-order law with respect to dye concentra-
tion only up to a certain point (90–95% of dye removal).
Decolourisation rate constants after the electrochem-
ical treatment are presented in Table 1. The decolourisa-
tion rate constants depended on the current density
applied in the electrochemical treatment and on the
chloride concentration, being the kd values significantly
bigger in NaCl-effluents than in Na2SO4-effluents which
only contained a low concentration of Cl
.
These kinetic constants are referred only to the
decolourisation reaction, that is to say to the chromo-
phore destruction to give colourless species. Under these
conditions, the total dye mineralization did not occur,
since the TOC only decreased a 10–20% and the decolo-
urisated effluents still presented absorption on the ultra-
violet region.
3.4. Influence of UV light on the colour removal
8 10
Effluents treated at 6 mA cm
2 were stored under dif-
ferent lighting conditions: UV light, solar light and
darkness. The evolution of the decolourisation is shown
in Fig. 4.
In all cases, UV light accelerated the decolourisation
rate. As can be seen in Fig. 4a, NaCl-effluents exhibited
a faster colour removal when UV light was irradiated,
less than 1 h of exposition was sufficient to reach a
95% of decolourisation whereas it was necessary an
exposition of almost 3 h to the solar light to obtain the
same level of decolourisation. In opposite, when the
effluent was kept at the darkness the reaction became
slow, in fact the complete colour removal was not
reached 7 h after the electrochemical treatment.
In the case of Na2SO4-effluents with 1 g l
1 of NaCl
added (Fig. 4b), more than a 90% of decolourisation
was reached after 3 h of UV light irradiation whereas
a storage of 24 h under the solar light was necessary to
obtain the same degree of decolourisation. By another
hand, at the darkness the decolourisation evolution
Table 1
Decolourisation rate constants after the electrochemical treat-
ment carried out at different current densities (wastewater
exposed to solar light)
Electrolyte Current density kd
(mA cm
2) (h
1)
20 g l
1 NaCl 3 0.136
6 0.725
25 g l
1 Na2SO4 + 1 g l
1 NaCl 6 0.080
12 0.141
 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112 111

100 3.5. Study of dye mineralization

95 (a)
The study of dye mineralization was carried out with
90 4 l of dyebath which were treated and recirculated for
Colour removal (%)

85 several hours in the electrochemical cell (flow rate:

25 l h
1 and current density: 24 mA cm
2). Samples were
80 taken at different treatment times and their absorbance
75 and TOC were analysed. The evolution of the decolouri-
UV light sation and the dye mineralization is presented in Fig. 5.
70 sunlight A 87% of decolourisation was obtained in the first
65 darkness sample acquisition (after 30 min). The colour was totally
removed after 90 min of treatment. However, dye miner-
60
alization was much slower, being necessary 10 h of elec-
trochemical treatment to have a TOC reduction of 81%.
100 As expected, the same ratio of COD removal was also
(b) UV light obtained. An important reduction of conductivity values
90 was observed at the end of the treatment from 35 000 to
Colour removal (%)

sunlight
28 030 lS cm
1. The pH also decreased from 9 to 8.6.
80 darkness
This behaviour is attributed to the oxidation of chloride
and hydroxyl ions.
70 The electrochemical oxidation easily fragmented the
dye molecule in smaller colourless species, while a pro-
60 longed treatment was necessary to reach a high level of
dye mineralization which implied an electrical consump-
50
tion of 698 Wh l
1.
From these results it can be stated that this electro-
40
chemical system is not an attractive method to be
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
applied at industrial scale for dyeing effluents minerali-
Exposition time (h) zation. In this sense, although the conventional biologi-
Fig. 4. Effect of lighting conditions on the evolution of the cal treatment is not able to remove the colour
decolourisation after the electrochemical treatment (current satisfactorily, it offers a good yield for the removal of
density: 6 mA cm
2). Electrolyte: (a) 20 g l
1 NaCl, (b) 25 g l
1 the organic compounds (more than a 90% of COD
Na2SO4 + 1 g l
1 NaCl. removal) at a much lower cost than the electrochemical
mineralization.
For this reason, the electrochemical process is pro-
Table 2 posed as a treatment to be carried out only on the colo-
Decolourisation rate constants after the electrochemical treat- urated wastewater, which must be segregated and
ment of waters exposed to different lighting conditions (previ- decolourized previously to their incorporation to the
ous current density 6 mA cm
2) biological plant.
Electrolyte Lighting conditions kd (h
1)
100
20 g l
1 NaCl UV light 1.701
Sunlight 0.742
Darkness 0.195 80
Dye removal (%)

1
1
25 g l Na2SO4 + 1 g l NaCl UV light 0.607 60
Sunlight 0.084
Darkness 0.024 40
dye mineralization
20
decolorisation
was much slower: only a 70% of decolourisation was
obtained 24 h after the electrochemical treatment. 0
0 2 4 6 8 10
As is evident from Table 2, the decolourisation rate
Treatment time (h)
constants obtained for effluents stored under UV light
are higher than the corresponding to effluents exposed Fig. 5. Dye mineralization and decolourisation versus the time
at the sunlight. In the same way, kd decreased dramati- of electrochemical treatment at 24 mA cm
2 (initial dye con-
cally when the effluents were stored on the darkness. centration: 1 g l
1, electrolyte: 20 g l
1).
112 V. López-Grimau, M.C. Gutiérrez / Chemosphere 62 (2006) 106–112
4. Conclusions
The electrochemical treatment with Ti/PtOx anodes
provides better decolourisation results when the reactive
dyebath effluents contain NaCl than when the dyeing
electrolyte is Na2SO4. The pH of the effluents does not
have a significant influence on the electrochemical
decolourisation. The presence of chloride ions improves
the yield of decolourisation, which can be attributed to
the action of oxidising species (generated by the chloride
anodic oxidation) as hypochlorite ions, free chloride and
radicalarian species (Cl, Cl2
, ClOH
). The addition of
a small amount of chloride ions (0.5 g l
1 of NaCl) in
Na2SO4-effluents improves the decolourisation yield.
The colour removal advances after the electrochemi-
cal treatment by exposition to solar light of the effluents
partially decoloured. The storage of the wastewater
under solar light for several hours allows to minimize
the electrical consumption, as high decolourisation
levels are reached even when low current densities have
been applied. Kinetic decolourisation rate constants
under UV light are much higher than under solar light.
Hence, the time of storage after the electrochemical
treatment can be reduced by UV light irradiation.
A high TOC removal is obtained for concentrated
dyebaths when a high current density is applied for a pro-
longed treatment while the effluent is recirculated. These
treatment conditions generate a high electrical consump-
tion. The electrochemical oxidation is thought as a spe-
cific method of colour removal of dyeing and washing
effluents. The decoloured effluents should be later sub-
mitted to the biological plant to continue their treatment.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Technology (project REN2001-2304-C02-
01/TECNO).
References
Allegre, C., Maisseu, M., Charbit, F., Moulin, P., 2004.
Coagulation–flocculation–decantation of dye house efflu-
ents: concentrated effluents. J. Hazard. Mater. B116, 57–64.
Arslan-Alaton, I., Balcioglu, I.A., Bahnemann, D.W., 2002.
Advanced oxidation of a reactive dyebath effluent: compar-
ison of O3, H2O2/UV-C and TiO2/UV-A processes. Water
Res. 36, 1143–1154.
Bechtold, T., Burtscher, E., Turcanu, A., 2001. Cathodic
reduction of CI Acid Red 27 and CI reactive black 5—
basic investigations of decoloration and textile waste water.
Text. Res. J. 71, 870–877.
Carvalho, G., Delée, W., Novais, J.M., Pinheiro, H.M., 2002. A
factorially-designed study of physicochemical reactive dye
colour removal from simulated cotton textile processing
wastewaters. Color. Technol. 118, 215–219.
Chen, X., Chen, G., Po Lock, Y., 2003. Anodic oxidation of
dyes at nobel Ti/B-diamond electrodes. Chem. Eng. Sci. 58,
995–1001.
Gutiérrez, M.C., Pepió, M., Crespi, M., Mayor, N., 2001.
Control factors in the electrochemical oxidation of reactive
dyes. Color. Technol. 117, 356–361.
Gutiérrez, M.C., Pepió, M., Crespi, M., 2002. Electrochemical
oxidation of reactive dyes: method validation and applica-
tion. Color. Technol. 118, 1–5.
Hepel, M., Luo, J., 2001. Photoelectrochemical mineralization
of textile diazo dye pollutants using nanocrystalline WO3
electrodes. Electrochim. Acta 47, 729–740.
Jhawar, M., Bartels, C., Chilekar, S., 2003. UF technology
contributes to the recycling of dye salt solutions. Filtr.
Separat. 40, 20–21.
Koch, M., Yediler, A., Lienert, D., Insel, G., Kettrup, A., 2002.
Ozonation of hydrolyzed azo dye reactive yellow 84 (CI).
Chemosphere 46, 109–113.
Koyuncu, I., 2002. Reactive dye removal in dye/salt mixtures by
nanofiltration membranes containing vinylsulphone dyes:
effects of feed concentration and cross flow velocity.
Desalination 143, 243–253.
Malik, P.K., 2004. Dye removal from wastewater using
activated carbon developed from sawdust: adsorption
equilibrium and kinetics. J. Hazard. Mater. B113, 81–
88.
Máximo, C., Pessoa-Amorim, M.T., Costa-Ferreira, M., 2003.
Biotransformation of industrial reactive azo dyes by Geot-
richum sp. CCMI 1019. Enzyme Microb. Technol. 32, 145–
151.
Sanghi, R., Bhattacharya, B., 2002. Review on decolorisation of
aqueous dye solutions by low cost adsorbents. Color.
Technol. 118, 256–269.
Sen, S., Demirer, G.N., 2003. Anaerobic treatment of real
textile wastewater with a fluidized bed reactor. Water Res.
37, 1868–1878.
Shen, Z., Wang, W., Jia, J., Feng, X., Hu, W., Peng, A., 2002.
Catalytically assisted electrochemical oxidation of dye acid
Red B. Water Environ. Res. 74, 117–121.
Torrades, F., Garcı́a-Montaño, J., Garcı́a-Hortal, J.A., Núñez,
L., Doménech, X., Peral, J., 2004. Decolorisation and
mineralisation of homo and hetero-bireactive dyes under
Fenton and Photo-Fenton conditions. Color. Technol. 120,
188–194.
Vijayaraghavan, K., Ramanujama, T.K., Balasubramanian, N.,
2001. In situ hypochlorous acid generation for the treatment
of textile wastewater. Color. Technol. 117, 49–53.
Vlyssides, A.G., Loizidou, M., Karlis, P.K., Zorpas, A.A.,
Papaioannou, D., 1999. Electrochemical oxidation of a
textile dye wastewater using a Pt/Ti electrode. J. Hazard.
Mater. B70, 41–52.
Zhang, W., An, T., Xiao, X., Fu, J., Sheng, G., Cui, M., Li, G.,
2003. Photoelectrocatalytic degradation of reactive brilliant
orange K-R in a new continuous flow photoelectrocatalytic
reactor. Appl. Catal. A—Gen. 255, 221–229.
Zhao, W., Shi, H., Wang, D., 2004. Ozonation of cationic Red
X-GRL in aqueous solution: degradation and mechanism.
Chemosphere 57, 1189–1199.