Assessment of an Electrocoagulation Reactor for the Removal of Oil Content and Turbidity from Real Oily Wastewater Using Response Surface Method
Forat Yasir AlJaberi, Basma Abbas Abdulmajeed, Ali A. Hassan, Muhib L. Ghadban
Abstract
Background: Large amounts of oily wastewater and its derivatives are discharged annually from several industries to the environment. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the ability to remove oil content and turbidity from real oily wastewater discharged from the wet oil's unit (West Qurna 1-Crude Oil Location/ Basra-Iraq) by using an innovated electrocoagulation reactor containing concentric aluminum tubes in a monopolar mode. Methods: The influences of the operational variables (current density (1.77-7.07 mA/cm2) and electrolysis time (10-40 min)) were studied using response surface methodology (RSM) and Minitab-17 statistical program. The agitation speed was taken as 200 rpm. Energy and electrodes consumption had been studied and modeled. Results: The results revealed the positive effect of the electrodes design on the studied responses. Conclusion: Under the optimum values of the operating variables (5.675 mA/cm2, 40 min), 85.982% and 84.439% removal efficiencies of oil content and turbidity respectively were obtained and the consumption of energy and electrodes were observed as 4.333kWh/m3 and 0.36 g respectively.