Effect of supporting electrolyte type and concentration at electrocoagulation of synthetic Basic Yellow 2 wastewater

Abstract

Color pollution in the aquatic environment causes many problems in the natural environment. Since it directly affects the light transmission, natural water resources have negative effects on oxygen gain. Basic yellow 2 is widely used in textile, paper, leather, and food industries as a colorant. All these industries are thriving nowadays. Wastewaters from these industries contains basic yellow 2 and decolorization must be done before legally discharging. In this study, the removal of Basic Yellow 2 (BY2), a cationic dye from synthetic wastewater, by electrocoagulation process in a batch system was investigated. As experimental parameters, the effect of support electrolyte type and concentration was examined at pH: 6, current density of 2.54 mA/cm2 , 100 ppm initial dye concentration and 60 minutes of experiment time. In this study effect of supporting electrolyte type and concentration investigated via electrocoagulation treatment of synthetic Basic Yellow 2 wastewater using aluminum electrodes. Supporting electrolyte type and concentration effect electrocoagulation process’s both efficiency and economy. Finding suitable supporting electrolytes increases efficiency of the process. NaCl, Na2SO4, NaNO3 and KCl chosen for this study. Treatment efficiency of 71.48% achieved after 60 minutes of electrocoagulation using 20 mM NaCl in synthetic wastewater concentration of 100 ppm Basic Yellow 2. Both electrolytes achieve removal efficiencies over 34% after 60 minutes of electrocoagulation. Also, energy consumption measurements taken during experiments and NaCl (20 mM) has energy consumption of 0.6 kWh/m3 after 60 minutes of electrocoagulation. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the electrocoagulation process is an effective method in the removal of cationic dyes.