• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.2314-2320
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• 2015

MBR (Membrane Bio-Reactor) process is known to consume enormous energy to control membrane fouling. To solve this problem, electro-coagulation technique has been applied to MBR. A series of electro-coagulation was applied to activated sludge suspension under different current density condition. After the electro-coagulations, membrane filtration of the activated sludge suspensions was conducted to investigate the effect of electro-coagulation on the fouling. As current density increased 10 to 40A/m2, the total fouling resistance (Rc+Rf) decreased from 18 to 79%, showing that the electro-coagulation improved the membrane filtration efficiency. Both the organic concentration in bulk and the particles size distribution were not nearly changed before and after the electro-coagulation. The enhanced filtration efficiency might be due to the aluminum hydroxide generated from chemical precipitation, which can be acted as a dynamic membrane preventing a deposition of foulants on membrane surfaces.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.105-114
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• 2018

Membrane fouling in EC-MBR (Electro-Coagulation aided Membrane Bio-Reactor) processes was evaluated according to the operating parameters, such as current density and contact time. In addition, the fouling mechanism was investigated. Compared to the control (i.e., no electro-coagulation), membrane fouling for filtration of the activated sludge suspension after electro-coagulation was reduced significantly. Membrane fouling was improved further when the contact time was doubled under a low current density of $2.5A/m^2$. On the other hand, membrane fouling was not mitigated further, as expected, even though the contact time was doubled from 12 to 24 hr. at a current density of $10A/m^2$. This indicates that the overall decrease in membrane fouling is a function of the product of the current density and contact time. The particle size of the activated sludge flocs after electro-coagulation was changed slightly, which means that the membrane fouling reduction was not attributed to a larger particle size resulting from electro-coagulation. The experimental confirmed that the dynamic membrane made from aluminum hydroxide, Al(OH)3, and/or aluminum phosphate, Al(PO4), which had been formed during the electro-coagulation, played a key role on the reduction of membrane fouling. The dynamic membrane prevents the particles in the feed solution from deposition to the membrane pores and cake layers. Dynamic membrane formation as a result of electro-coagulation plays a critical role in the mitigation of membrane fouling in EC-MBR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.579-589
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• 2012

To reduce extensive energy costs of the internal recycling for the purpose of denitrification in the advanced wastewater treatment, a post-treatment process using an electro-coagulation to treat nitrate in the secondary effluents is evaluated in this study. Removals of phosphorus and organics in the secondary effluents by the electro-coagulation were also evaluated to propose an alternative advanced wastewatert treatment process. A series of experiments of the electro-coagulation were carried out with the following 4 different samples: synthetic solution containing nitrate only, synthetic solution containing nitrate as well as phosphorus, secondary effluents from activated sludge cultivated in laboratory, and secondary effluents from real wastewater treatment plants. Removals of nitrate and phosphorus in the synthetic solution were 30 and 97 % respectively, which verified the feasibility of the process. Removals of nitrate, phosphorus and COD in the secondary effluents from the cultivated sludge in laboratory were 49, 90 and 19 % respectively. Removal efficiency of the total nitrogen, nitrrate, phosphorus and COD in the secondary effluent from real wastewater treatment plant were 50, 61, 98 and 80 % respectively. The removal of the total nitrogen was less than the nitrate as expected, which is due to the formation of ammonia nitrogen in the cathode. But the proposed scheme could be an energy saving and alternative process for the advanced wastewater treatment if further studies for the process optimization are carried out.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

The water treatment by electrochemical method was performed to increase the yield of production. Continuous plug flow reactor was operated to treat poultry and domestic wastewaters. Experimental results were compared with experimental results of the wastewater treatment by chemical coagulation, they were increased over 10% in the removal efficiency of COD and the production rate of sludge was reduced by 30%. Ozone utilized to degrade or change the organic chemical structures, which removal efficiency increased to 20% in the electro-coagulation reactor. Economic evaluation was performed to estimate total cost of electro-coagulation reactor in comparison with that of chemical coagulation method. The total cost to treat 1000 ton/day of domestic wastewater was reduced by 50%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.643-649
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• 2015

Although microalgae are considered as a promising feedstock for biofuels, cost-efficient harvesting of microalgae needs to be significantly improved. In this study, the use of electro coagulation as a more rapid flocculation method for harvesting a freshwater (Scenedesmus dimorphus) microalgae species was evaluated. The results showed that, electro coagulation was shown to be more efficient using an aluminum anode than using an iron anode. And optimum conditions of electro coagulation for harvesting Scenedesmus dimorphus were found. The optimum stirring speed was 100 rpm and optimum pH was 5. Furthermore, the current density which the fastest and highest recovery efficiency is achieved at $30A/m^2$, while the highest energy efficiency was achieved at $10A/m^2$. A the rapid and high recovery efficiency indicate that electro coagulation is a particularly attractive technology for harvesting microalgae.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.94-102
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• 2015

Electro-coagulation experiments were conducted with aluminum (Al) or iron (Fe) electrode in order to determine the optimal electrode material and operation conditions for algae removal. Al electrode showed higher removal rate of algae than Fe electrode because Al flocs have positive surface charges which electrostatically attract algae species having negative surface charges. Removal rate of algae and total phosphorous (T-P) was increased as current density and electrode area increases. It was also found that initial pH with neutral range was optimum for T-P removal by electro-coagulation. Bench-scale continuous flow experiments consisted of electro-coagulation reactor, agitation tank and settling tank were conducted. In electro-coagulation reactor, a large fraction of Al flocs were distributed to scum layer, due to the gas bubbles generated by electrolysis reaction. In agitation tank, most of Al flocs were settled and the optimal mixing intensity was found to be 50 rpm to achieve good settleability. The removal rate of algae was about 90-95%. Additionally, the removal rate of the T-P and COD was observed to be $73.8{\pm}8.0%$ and $75.0{\pm}3.8%$, respectively. Meanwhile, the removal rate of total nitrogen (T-N) was relatively low at only 24%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2019

Electro-coagulation process has been gained an attention recently because it could overcome the membrane fouling problems in MBR(Membrane bio-reactor). Effect of the key operational parameters in electro-coagulation, current density(${\rho}_i$) and contact time(t) on membrane fouling reduction was investigated in this study. A kinetic model for ${\rho}_i$ and t required to reduce the membrane fouling was suggested under different MLSS(mixed liquor suspended solids) concentration. Total 48 batch type experiments of electro-coagulations under different sets of current densities(2.5, 6, 12 and $24A/m^2$), contact times(0, 2, 6 and 12 hr) and MLSS concentration(4500, 6500 and 8500mg/L) were carried out. After each electro-coagulation under different conditions, a series of membrane filtration was performed to get information on how much of membrane fouling was reduced. The membrane fouling decreased as the ${\rho}_i$ and t increased but as MLSS decreased. Total fouling resistances, Rt (=Rc+Rf) were calculated and compared to those of the controls (Ro), which were obtained from the experiments without electro-coagulation. A kinetic approach for the fouling reduction rate (Rt/Ro) was carried out and three equations under different MLSS concentration were suggested: i) ${\rho}_i^{0.39}t=3.5$ (MLSS=4500 mg/L), ii) ${\rho}_i^{0.46}t=7.0$ (MLSS=6500 mg/L), iii) ${\rho}_i^{0.74}t=10.5$ (MLSS=8500 mg/L). These equations state that the product of ${\rho}_i$ and t needed to reduce the fouling in certain amounts (in this study, 10% of fouling reduction) is always constant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.767-775
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• 2011

In this study we verified if the electro-coagulation process can treat properly the nitrate and fluoride that are not removed well in the conventional small water treatment plants which usually employ chlorination and filtration only. As we gave a change of electrode material and gap-distance between electrodes, removal efficiency of the nitrate and fluoride was determined by electro-coagulation process which were equipped with aluminum and stainless steel (SUS304) electrodes. In addition, electrode durability was investigated by determination of electrodes mass change during the repetitive experiments. Removal efficiency was great when aluminum was used as an anode material. Nitrate removals increased as electric density and number of electrodes increased, but fluoride removal was less sensitive to both parameters than nitrate. After 10 minutes of contact time with the current density from $1{\times}10^{-3}$ to $3{\times}10^{-3}A/cm^{2}$, nitrate and fluoride concentration ranged from 9.2 to 1.2mg/L and from 0.02 to 0.01mg/L, which satisfied the regulation limits. Regardless of the repeating number of experiments, removal efficiency of both ions were almost similar and the change of electrode mass ranged within ${\pm}$0.5%, indicating that the loss of the electrode mass is not so much great under the limited circumstances.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.20-24
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• 1995

• Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Technology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.556-562
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• 2018

Due to the enforcement of effluent water regulation the advance sewage treatment system is needed to retrofit and remodelling. In this case the most important issue is the effluent concentrations of TP and there are a lot of system to reduce its concentration. But biological treatment processes have many restrictions to enhance the removal efficiency of TP. In this study the efficient ECO operating condition to improve and retrofit biological sewage wastewater treatment system is as follow; 1) The treatment efficiency of BOD, TN and TP at the current density of $15mA/cm^2$ was higher than the treatment efficiency at $5mA/cm^2$ in the electrodes arranged with Al-SUS(Stainless Steel) regardless of the reaction time, The TP concentration was 0.1 mg/L or less. Especially, when the reaction time was maintained at 10 min, the TP concentration was 0.06 mg/L or less irrespective of the current density. 2) The change of TP concentration is not influenced by the change of current density and rather the concentration of treated water changes according to the reaction time. In the case of electro coagulation reaction, a few seconds to several minutes are required. However, the reaction time of electro coagulation and oxidation was studied to be more than 10 minutes. 3) As a result, it has been studied that the economical current density of the electro coagulation oxidation process for TN and TP treatment of domestic wastewater is $15mA/cm^2$ or less and the reaction time is 10 minutes.