Industrial indigo dyeing wastewater purification: Effective COD removal with peroxi-AC electrocoagulation system

Direct current (DC) electrocoagulation has obvious decolorization effect on indigo dyeing wastewater produced in actual production, while the removal rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was less than 40%, accompanied by serious electrode corrosion and high energy consumption. In order to enhance the COD removal rate, reduce the electrode loss and power consumption, a peroxi-alternating current (AC) electrocoagulation (EC) system was constructed. With COD as the main evaluation index, the effects of power type, electrode combination and process parameters on COD removal rate and decolorization rate were focused on and explored, as well as revealing the degradation mechanism of COD. The results showed that AC electrocoagulation enhanced the floc adsorption capacity by improving the floc structure, and the COD removal rate after treatment was 51.19%. The coupled system of peroxi-AC electrocoagulation further removed sulfite and residual dyes in the wastewater, and the COD removal and decolorization rate of the treated wastewater reached 78.09% and 98.47%, respectively. In addition, the specific energy consumption analysis of COD removal showed that the coupled system was far less energetic than the DC electrocoagulation process, with only 30% of its energy consumption. The uniform corrosion of the electrode under the action of AC weakened the passivation, which reduced the electrode loss and power consumption by 22.73% and 43.75%, respectively. Results from the present work indicated that the peroxi-AC EC system could be an effective method for reducing the concentration of COD in indigo dyeing wastewater.