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K. Biswas and M. Rahaman
decades, the ever-growing population, urbanization, industrialization, and unskilled
utilization of water resources have led to degradation of water quality and reduction
in per capita availability in various developing countries. Iron is one of the most
common elements in nature as it represents about 5% of the earth’s crust (Hashim
et al. 2017), and it can be found in freshwaters at a concentration of 0.5–50 mg/L.
In addition to the natural occurrence of iron, many industries, such as mining and
steel industries, contribute to the occurrence of iron in the water. However, iron
represents an essential element for human health, where the daily intake of iron is
recommended to be between 10 and 50 mg depending on the person’s gender, age,
physiological status, and the bioavailability of iron. Based on these considerations,
the World Health Organization (WHO) limits their own concentration in drinking
water to 0.3 mg/L (Vasudevas et al. 2009). Electrocoagulation has been suggested
as an alternative to chemical coagulation in the treatment of waters and wastewaters
(Balasubramanian et al. 2009; Chaturvedi and Dave 2012). In this technology, metal
cations are released into the water by dissolving metal electrodes. Electrochemistry,
coagulation, and flotation are identified as the key elements in the electrocoagulation
process (Kobya et al. 2003; Al-Qodah et al. 2017).
The electrocoagulation (EC) has been considered as a suitable process to remove
iron in drinking water treatment because it lowers the amount of sludge and also
provides some significant advantages such as quite compact and easy operation, no
chemical additives needed, and high flow rates (Fu and Wang 2011). In this study,
Taguchi method was implemented to investigate the effect of different parameters
(viz. initial concentrations of heavy metal, current intensity, conductivity of solution, inter-electrode distance, and initial pH of solution) affecting EC process in the
removal of iron from wastewater. The experiments were conducted at four different
levels with five process parameters.
2 Materials and Methods
2.1 Materials
All the reagents used were analytical grade and were used without further modification. Iron sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO 4 , 7H 2 O) was procured from Merck, India.
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), and sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) were
also procured from Merck, India. Double distilled water was used to prepare the
various solutions of iron. Aluminum sheets (~98% purity) for electrode fabrication
were procured from local market.
K. Biswas and M. Rahaman
decades, the ever-growing population, urbanization, industrialization, and unskilled
utilization of water resources have led to degradation of water quality and reduction
in per capita availability in various developing countries. Iron is one of the most
common elements in nature as it represents about 5% of the earth’s crust (Hashim
et al. 2017), and it can be found in freshwaters at a concentration of 0.5–50 mg/L.
In addition to the natural occurrence of iron, many industries, such as mining and
steel industries, contribute to the occurrence of iron in the water. However, iron
represents an essential element for human health, where the daily intake of iron is
recommended to be between 10 and 50 mg depending on the person’s gender, age,
physiological status, and the bioavailability of iron. Based on these considerations,
the World Health Organization (WHO) limits their own concentration in drinking
water to 0.3 mg/L (Vasudevas et al. 2009). Electrocoagulation has been suggested
as an alternative to chemical coagulation in the treatment of waters and wastewaters
(Balasubramanian et al. 2009; Chaturvedi and Dave 2012). In this technology, metal
cations are released into the water by dissolving metal electrodes. Electrochemistry,
coagulation, and flotation are identified as the key elements in the electrocoagulation
process (Kobya et al. 2003; Al-Qodah et al. 2017).
The electrocoagulation (EC) has been considered as a suitable process to remove
iron in drinking water treatment because it lowers the amount of sludge and also
provides some significant advantages such as quite compact and easy operation, no
chemical additives needed, and high flow rates (Fu and Wang 2011). In this study,
Taguchi method was implemented to investigate the effect of different parameters
(viz. initial concentrations of heavy metal, current intensity, conductivity of solution, inter-electrode distance, and initial pH of solution) affecting EC process in the
removal of iron from wastewater. The experiments were conducted at four different
levels with five process parameters.
2 Materials and Methods
2.1 Materials
All the reagents used were analytical grade and were used without further modification. Iron sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO 4 , 7H 2 O) was procured from Merck, India.
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), and sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) were
also procured from Merck, India. Double distilled water was used to prepare the
various solutions of iron. Aluminum sheets (~98% purity) for electrode fabrication
were procured from local market.