UNDERSTANDING EFFECT OF ELECTROCOAGULATION PROCESS VARIABLES ON NUTRIENT REMOVAL FROM SIMULATED WASTEWATER

Nutrient removal from wastewater is necessary action to be taken due to its ability to develop unhygienic conditions when disposed in natural water bodies. Various anaerobic biological processes and final polishing pond possess inability to alter nutrients from wastewater. At the same time, electrocoagulation despite of type of wastewater has showed good removal of variety of pollutants. Hence, focus of this study was kept on removal of phosphate from simulated wastewater and to better understand effect of various process variables of electrocoagulation treatment. Current density, electrolysis time and initial pH are studied process variables in this work, while phosphate removal percentage was response taken. Response surface methodology was used for designing experiments and statistical analysis of data. Design Expert software version 8.0 was used for this purpose. It has been revealed through study that applied current and time has significant effect on PO4 removal but initial pH was found to be insignificant.