Sono-alternating current-electro-Fenton process for the removal of color, COD and determination of power consumption from distillery industrial wastewater

• Electrochemical assisted oxidation process eliminated color, COD, and determined power usage. • Hybrid EAOPs abolished complete color and COD with less energy than other processes. • Using a hybrid US + ACEF method, significant operational parameters were studied. • Synergistic index and water recovery between the US and ACEF process were explored. In this study, a variety of electrochemical and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as sono (US), US/hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), direct/alternating current-electro-Fenton (DCEF / ACEF), and sono-direct/alternating current-electro-Fenton (US + DCEF / US + ACEF) processes were compared in terms of their ability to remove a certain percentage of color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from distillery industrial wastewater (DIW), as well as their impact on the amount of power required to treat the wastewater. According to experimental findings, the hybrid US + ACEF process produced complete color-100% and COD-100% removal efficiencies with a lower power consumption of 3.40kWhr m −3 than single like US, DCEF, ACEF processes, and hybrid US/H 2 O 2 and US + DCEF processes. The consequences of significant operational parameters such as treatment time (30–210 min), sonication power (20–100 W) current density (0.1–0.6A dm −2 ), pH (1–5), COD concentration (1500–7500 mg L −1 ), inter-electrode distance (1–4 cm), H 2 O 2 concentration (100–350 mg L −1 ), pulse duty cycle (0.14–1.00) and combination of electrode (Al/Fe, Al/Al, Fe/Fe, Fe/Al) on the % COD removal efficiency and power consumption of DIW were investigated by using hybrid US + ACEF process. The synergistic index and water recovery between US and ACEF process were also investigated and reported in this work. When compared to the other processes, the US + ACEF method is the most appropriate since it can be used effectively and efficiently to remove pollutants from wastewater and industrial effluent.