Toxicologia Ambiental e Analítica

Treatment of Tannery Wastewater with Nano-Electrocoagulation Process

Abstract

Abubaker Tajelsir Osman, Mohamed Rahmtalla Elamin and Mohammed Hassan Almalki

This work, aims to treat tannery wastewater sample to remove or reduce the pollutants load by using electrocoagulaion technique using an electrode of aluminum nanoparticles. The aluminum nanoparticles were synthesized using sol-gel method and characterized with XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX and FTIR. All the results show that these materials were in nano range. XRD pattern showed that the diameter of aluminum particles was around 14 nm and a peak at 2 theta 18 of aluminum hydroxide. TEM and SEM images of aluminum nanoparticles confirmed the XRD results. The EDX and FTIR indicate the presence of oxygen and hydroxyl ions accompanying the preparation of aluminum nanoparticles. The investigation of the tannery waste water showed high signs of pollution. The pH, turbidity, COD, TDS, chromium, sulphide, chloride and sulphate were 7, 13900 NTU, 10155 ppm, 462 ppm, 28950 ppm, 412 ppm, 6471.5 ppm and 5995 ppm respectively. All these values exceed the limits of the industrial effluent standards, except for the PH. In electrocoagulation treatment at 80 mA, 3 h and pH 7, succeeded to remove best 98.98%,90.6%,70.40%,99.9% and 88.3% of Turbidity, COD, TDS, Chromium and Sulphide respectively.