Treatment of Distillery Wastewater by Continuous Electrocoagulation Process

Effluent from distilleries, known as spent wash, leads to extensive soil and water pollution. Removal of pollutants and color from distillery effluent is becoming increasingly important from environmental and aesthetic point of view. Effluent from distilleries contains certain recalcitrant compounds. The present research deals with the treatment of distillery wastewater by continuous electrocoagulation (CEC) process using iron (Fe) as an electrode material. Effects of flow rates (dm3 h −1): 0.5–4.0 and residence time (τ): 0.5–4.0 h was investigated on degradation of chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, total solid (TS), and turbidity. At flow rates of 1.0 and 0.5 dm3 h −1, COD removal efficiency of 78.20 and 82.15%; and color removal efficiency of 79 and 90%, respectively, was achieved. TS concentration of wastewater slurry was also reduced by 65% after 3 h residence time with flow rate of 1 dm3 h −1 .