Phenol Removal from Aqueous Solutions by Electrocoagulation Technology Using Iron Electrodes:Effect of Some Variables ()
1. Introduction
One of the most prevalent forms of organic chemical pollutants in industrial wastewaters are Phenol and phenolic compounds [1]. High concentrations of phenol and phenolic compounds typically are found in aqueous effluents of oil refineries, petrochemical, ceramic, and steel plants, coal conversion processes, phenolic resin and pharmaceutical industries [1-4] . Since phenol and its derivatives are toxic and harmful to living organisms even at low concentrations, they are known as noxious pollutants [4]. The most widely used methods for phenol removal from aqueous solutions are adsorption, chemical oxidation, biological treatment, precipitation, distillation, solvent extraction, ion exchange, membrane processes, reverse osmosis, and electrochemical methods [2,4-6] . However, these methods have some problems such as high cost, low efficiency, and generation of toxic byproducts [6]. On the other hand, electrochemical methods have little or no harmful effects on the environment and electrochemical reactions are more or less independent of the conditions of the wastewater [6].
Electrocoagulation is an alternative technology for wastewater treatment in addition to its other conventional applications. The most important advantages of electrocoagulation compared with other conventional techniques are “in situ” delivery of reactive agents, no generation of secondary pollution, and compact equipment [7]. In this study, electrocoagulation using iron electrodes was conducted to investigate the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions.
2. Material and Methods
The phenol used in the experiments was provided from Merck Chemical Company; it was 98.5% pure. Furthermore, Alginate acid sodium salt from brown algae was purchased from Fluka Biochemical and the synthetic wastewater containing the phenol was prepared using distilled water. pH and conductivity were adjusted to a desired value using 0.1 M HCl and NaOH. The electrolyte (NaCl) concentration of 2 g was kept constant initially. The Plexiglas cell as electrolytic reactor having dimensions of 12 cm × 12 cm × 16 cm with a working volume of about 1.5 L was used to conduct the experiments, and a magnetic stirrer was applied for mixing (200 rpm). Iron sheets with the dimensions of 0.10 m× 0.10 m × 0.002 m were also used as electrodes. Between two tests, electrolytic cell (including the electrodes) was cleaned with 15% (W/V) hydrochloric acid solution. The gap between the anode and cathode was 2 cm. A Singleoutput Adjustable DC Power Supply (MPS-3005D) was used as the power supplier. Retention time, pH, current density, and initial phenol, NaCl, and alginic acid concentrations were selected as parameters. At different time intervals, the samples were taken from the reactor and centrifuged for 30 min at 4000 rpm before analysis. Analyses were performed according to the standard methods for examination of water and wastewater [8]. Briefly, the concentrations of phenol were determined by spectrophotometer (Hach DR2800 spectrophotometer) according to the analysis of the color resulted from the reaction of phenol with 4-aminoantipyrine at 500 nm.
3. Result and Discussion
3.1. Effect of pH
In this study, the phenol removal efficiency was determined in the pH range from 3 to 11. Figure 1 shows the influence of solution pH on phenol removal. It shows that the phenol removal efficiency increased with pH until it reached to 7, and after this point, further increase of pH, the removal efficiency decreased. Maximum removal occurred at pH 7 value, thus pH = 7 was the optimum pH. In agreement with our findings, Yavuz et al. reported that pH adjustment is not necessary because the most appropriate results are achieved when initial pH was 7 [9]. The kinetics of Fe2+ conversion to Fe3+ are strongly affected by the pH; the surface charge of the coagulating particle also varies with pH. In general, at lower and higher pH Fe is increasingly soluble. At lower pH the protons in the solution are reduced to H2 at the cathode and the same proportion of hydroxide ions cannot be produced. At lower pH, Fe(OH)2+ and 
were produced which are disadvantageous for phenol precipitation [10].
3.2. Effect of Current Density
The supply of current density to the electrocoagulation system is a determining factor for the amount of Fe2+ ions released from the electrodes. To investigate the effect of current density on metal removal, electrocoagula-
Figure 1. The effect of pH on phenol removal by electrocoagulation (c.d = 10 mA/cm2, NaCl= 2 g/L, phenol = 100 mg/L, T = 20˚C, time = 60 min).
tion process was carried out using various current densities varying from 5 to 25 A at pH 7. Figure 2 shows the effect of current density on phenol removal in the electrocoagulation process. As shown in this Fig, the removal rate of phenol increased with increasing current density, and the highest current density (25 mA/cm2) had the maximum removal efficiency. That is because increasing the current density caused higher coagulant dissolution, and OH− production resulted in a more efficient and faster removal [11]. A large current density means a small electrocoagulation unit. However, when so large a current density is used, there is a high chance of wasting electrical energy in heating up the water. More importantly, it would result in a significant decrease in current efficiency [12]. Therefore, to ensure a high current efficiency, the current density selection should be made along with including other operating parameters such as pH and temperature as well as flow rate.
3.3. Effect of Initial Phenol Concentration
Figure 3 depicts the effect of initial phenol concentration on the efficiency of phenol removal. As shown in Figure 3, increasing the concentration of phenol led to decreasing the removal efficiency from 91% to 70.1%. This is attributed to the fact that at a constant current density, the same number of iron ions passes to the solution at dif-