Textile wastewater is characterized by strong color, large amount of suspended and dissolved solids, broadly fluctuating pH, high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and bio-toxicity. Physico-chemical treatments such as coagulation, adsorption, and other processes generate secondary pollutants. Advanced oxidation processes are efficient in decolorizing dye containing effluents but often they are preferred due to their high investment and operational cost. Therefore such processes can be used as pretreatment before biological treatment to make the pollutants bio-amenable. Electrochemical methods are used successfully for the degradation of dyes and treatment of textile industry wastewater. This study presents the electrochemical degradation of dye containing effluents by airlift type electrochemical. Granulated activated carbon and stainless steel was used as an anode and cathode, respectively. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), color and toxicity reduction during electrochemical degradation was monitored. The experimental results showed that the removal efficiency was as much higher as 94% in the investigated time of 30 min to 1 h, which is normally efficient for industrial level processing. Further, influence of initial concentration of dye and pH on degradation of dye was studied.
Key words: COD removal, Dye wastewater, Airlift type electrochemical bipolar reactor
