SEWAGE TREATMENT BY ELECTROLYTIC PROCESS

The wastewater from domestic sources otherwise called sewage could be treated by various methods based on
aerobic biological treatment processes, anaerobic biological treatment processes and electro-chemical treatment processes.

ELECTROCOAGULATION AS A WASTEWATER TREATMENT

 The most widely practiced method in India is based on aerobic biological treatment of sewage. In this article, the electro-chemical process of sewage treatment has been briefly discussed. Electrolytic process is a technique involving the passage of electricity through wastewater or effluent to be treated. The electric current destabilizes the dissolved colloid particles and alters the charge on suspended particles permitting their coagulation, flotation and separation.

 Coagulation and flocculation are traditional methods for the treatment of polluted water. Electrocoagulation presents a robust novel and innovative alternative in which a sacrificial metal anode doses water electrochemically. This has the major advantage of providing active cations required for coagulation, without increasing the salinity of the water.

 Electrocoagulation is a complex process with a multitude of mechanisms operating synergistically to remove pollutants from the water

 A wide variety of opinions exist in the literature for key mechanisms and reactor configurations. A lack of a systematic approach has resulted in a myriad of designs for electrocoagulation reactors without due consideration of the complexity of the system.

 A systematic, holistic approach is required to understand electrocoagulation and its controlling parameters. This will enable a priori prediction of the treatment of various pollutant types.

 A current is passed through a metal electrode, oxidising the metal (M) to its cation (M n+ ) Simultaneously, water is reduced to hydrogen gas and the hydroxyl ion (OH-) .

 Electrocoagulation thus introduces metal cations in situ, electrochemically, using sacrificial anodes (usually aluminium or iron).

 The cation hydrolyzes in water forming a hydroxide with the dominant species determined by solution pH.

 The Third Annual Australian Environmental Engineering Research Event. 23-26 November Castlemaine, Victoria 1999

 Highly charged cations destabilize any colloidal particles by the formation of polyvalent polyhydroxide complexes. These complexes have high adsorption properties, forming aggregates with pollutants.

 Evolution of hydrogen gas aids in mixing and hence flocculation. Once the floc is generated, the electrolytic gas creates a flotation effect removing the pollutants to the floc - foam layer at the liquid surface.

There are a variety of ways in which species can interact in solution: 1. Migration to an oppositely charged electrode (electrophoresis) and aggregation due to charge neutralisation. 2. The cation or hydroxyl ion (OH-) forms a precipitate with the pollutant.

 3. The metallic cation interacts with OH- to form a hydroxide, which has high adsorption properties thus bonding to the pollutant (bridge coagulation).

 4. The hydroxides form larger lattice-like structures and sweeps through the water (sweep coagulation). 5. Oxidation of pollutants to less toxic species.

 6. Removal by electroflotation and adhesion to bubbles.

 The inherent complexity of the process makes it difficult to model and control. Adequate scaleup parameters, a systematic approach to the optimization and a priori prediction for the performance of the electrocoagulation reactor are yet to be established. The literature reveals that previously each new system has been considered separately on an individual basis.

 There has been little or no attempt to provide a holistic approach to electrocoagulation. In order to understand the mechanisms behind electrocoagulation, and thus control the system better, a holistic approach is required.

Brief Description of Electrolytic Process:

The wastewater is allowed to pass through the bar screen chamber to remove the coarse particles (such as plastic, wood pieces, leaves, paper, etc) before entering in to the equalisation tank. The equalisation tank helps in maintaining a uniform flow to the Electro Cell. The size and design of the equalisation tank depends upon the flow rate and type of the effluent.

 In general the size of the Equalisation tank varies between 20 35% of the total flow. The electrolysed brine from the brine electrolyser is also continuously injected at about 1% of waste water flow to the equalisation tank. The brine electrolyser gets mixed with the effluent where it oxidizes the organics and also works as an electrolyte in the Electrocell for further degradation of organic components.

 The suspended solids settle down at the bottom of the equalisation tank and are pumped out with the help of a sewage pump, time-to-time.

 The pre-oxidized sewage from the equalization tank is pumped to the Electro Cell where electro-coagulation process helps in destabilizing the colloidal and suspended particles.

 In the electrolytic process the coagulant is generated by electrolytic oxidation of anode. The charged ionic species are removed by allowing it to react with an ion of opposite charge.

 It is the use of sacrificial electrodes either of aluminium or iron which releases positive ions (Al 3+ or Fe 3+) to coagulate the suspended particles by forming polyvalent poly-hydroxide complexes. When an electric current is passed through a metal electrode, dissolution of metal takes place with simultaneous formation of hydroxyl ions and hydrogen gas.

Diagram: EQUALISATION TANK

Excess supernatant liquid from Slurry tank For instance, if aluminum electrodes are used, aluminum dissolves into the solution reacting with the hydroxyl ions to form aluminum hydroxide. The hydroxide coagulates the suspended solids purifying the water. The solids could be removed from the top of the treated tank by flotation method and treated effluent be allowed to move by gravity to the sand filter. The sludge could also be allowed to settle and pumped for sand filtration.

Electrolysis Process
Ions being acted upon The treated wastewater from the Electro Cell is allowed to flow by gravity to the activated carbon filter. This gives the final treatment and the treated wastewater is pumped to the treated water tank.

Electrolysis sewage treatment system

The principle of theory supplies the electronic energy through electrode cells to soil, wastewater including electrolyte (seawater, NaCl),then it treats the sewage, wastewater as the oxidation response by HOCl, O3 in the electrode response of oxidation, reduction, solution which is made by exchange of direct election between interface of cell and solution and it's originated material

 After electrolysis treatment of NaCl,It purifies and sterilizes as causes oxidation action to soil and wastewater by the strong steriliting power which is originated in surface of cells. It treats as floats the suspended solid of colloid side and the suspended solid material of water by rising minute hydrogen gas which is originated in processing of electrolysis treatment

Applied Area
Factory wastewater of organic chemical Factory wastewater of inorganic chemical Dyeing factory wastewater Plating factory wastewater Stock rising wastewater Petrochemical wastewater Sewage soil treatment

INTRODUCTION
There are many industries, such as pulp and paper mills, pharmaceutical, and electroplating industries, which discharge wastewaters with certain pollutants which would cause a serious impact to the environment (Chiang et al., 1997). Many pollutants have certain substituints such as halogen, sulfo-, azo- or nitro-groups. Particularly the accumulation of such groups and specific substitution patterns confer xenobiotic character to a synthetic compound (Campbell, 1977; Knackmuss, 1996). As a consequence, many of these chemicals tend to persist in the environment.

 Persistent chemicals present the problem of accumulation in organisms near the top of food chains to a much higher level generally than in the environment (Alexander, 1977; Campbell, 1977; Melo and Azevedo, 1997; Tortora et al., 2000). Consequently, the treatment of the industrial wastewaters has always been conducted to minimize the threat to the environment. Biological processes are the treatment systems used most and they can usually remove readily biodegradable organics (Chiang et al., 1997).

 However, if the main part of the organic compounds present in a wastewater is persistent, microorganisms are not able to degrade it and the biological processes are not suitable. Depending on their quantity and their ecotoxicological behavior, the recalcitrant organics have to be removed by additional treatment (Gulyas, 1997; Chiang et al., 1997; Israilides et al., 1997; Panizza et al., 2000; Moraes et al., 2000; Janssen and Koene, 2002).

 Electrochemical treatment is a powerful tool for the purification of this kind of wastewater. This technology has attracted a great deal of attention because of the versatility, which makes the treatment of liquids, gases and solids possible. Other characteristics include energy efficiency, amenability to automation and environmental compatibility.

 In fact, the main reagent is the electron, which is a "clean reagent" (Rajeshwar et al., 1994). The electrochemical methods have been successfully used for the treatment of wastewater from slaughterhouse (Marconato et al., 1998), textile wastewater (Naumczyk et al., 1996; Shen et al., 2001; Xiong et al., 2001), tannery wastewater (Vlyssides and Israilides, 1997; Szpyrkowics et al., 2001), domestic wastewater (Vlyssides et al., 2002), and biorefractory organics (Saracco et al., 2001).

 After the electrochemical treatment of wastewater containing persistent compound, the biodegradation and toxicity can be improved (Vlyssides and Israilides, 1997; Chiang et al., 1997; Israilides et al., 1997; Angelis et al., 1998).

 The present study investigated the degradation of a simulated wastewater containing the compound n-phenyl n isopropyl p phenylenediamine (commercial name is Flexzone 3P), using Ti/TiRuO2 electrodes. The Ti/TiRuO2 electrodes are dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) and they are suitable for electro oxidation of organic compounds. They show high corrosion resistance and physical/chemistry stability under high positive potentials (Pelegrino et al., 2002). However, other kinds of electrodes have also been utilized for electro oxidation of organic compounds such as the synthetic boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes (Panizza et al., 2001). DSA electrodes have been chosen for these experiments due their good features for treating wastewaters containing organic compounds (Rgis and Bidoia, 2001a; Chung and Park, 2000).

 The commercial compound Flexzone 3P is an aromatic amine used by a chemical industry of rubber antioxidant and antiozonant (Rgis and Bidoia, 2001a) located in Rio Claro, So Paulo State, Brazil. The compound Flexzone 3P has been chosen because it is one of the most important chemical compounds present in the effluent from that Brazilian industry. Many aromatic amines have been reported to be powerful carcinogens and mutagens, and/or hemotoxicants (Chung et al., 1997; Benigni and Passerini, 2002). Consequently the treatment of the industrial wastewaters containing these kinds of chemicals is very important to minimize the threat to the environment.

 We studied the electrochemical treatment in order to reduce the toxicity of the simulated wastewater containing Flexzone 3P. In particular, conductivity and pH were monitored with electrolysis duration. After electrolysis duration, samples of wastewater were submitted to UV-visible spectrophotometry analysis, gas chromatography, toxicity assay and biodegradation test using the respirometric Bartha flask.

ELECTROPLATING PLASTIC

 Electroplating is the deposition of metal ions from solution onto an electrically charged surface. The surface must therefore be conductive. Plastic is not conductive, so direct electroplating of plastic is not practicable. Instead, the process is performed in steps, covering the plastic in an adhesive conductor, like metallic paint, before performing genuine electroplating.

METHODS TO PLATE PLASTIC

There are two methods to plate plastic: One is to roughen the surface to allow metal to adhere. Then electroplate over that layer to build up layers of metal. This process is called electroless, auto-catalytic or chemical plating. The second method is to apply conductive paint to the plastic, then electroplate it.

 To begin the roughening method, first clean the plastic part of all oil, grease and other foreign matter. This process can be made complicated if you want to be thorough, with a long series of applications of acids and bases. Rinse with water several times after each step to clear away the prior cleaning agent before the next is applied.

 Drop the part in a chrome-sulfur bath. The acid will pit, or etch, the surface, so that metal can adhere. An alternative method of etching is to sandblast the surface.

 Drop the part in a palladium chloride bath. This will leave an initial layer of metal which will allow electroplating the standard way. Specifically, the part will then be electroplated with copper as yet another preparation layer, then gold, chrome, nickel or whatever the final metal layer is to be.

Paint Approach
Purchase conductive paint. Inexpensive conductive paint can be purchased from Acheson Colloids or Cybershield. Clean the surface, as above. Apply the paint. Electroplate with an initial copper layer, as above. The rest of the electroplating is the same as in the pitting approach.

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