Performance Evaluation Of Electrocoagulation And Electro-Fenton Processes For Phenol Removal From Wastewater Using Copper Electrodes / by Noor Mohammed Anter ; Under the Supervision of Prof. Dr. Ehab Helmy Rozaik, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Safwat Mahmoud Safwat.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-Cairo University, 2023.

Bibliography: pages 92-101.

One of the greatest problems facing humanity nowadays, is the water availability
and quality. The world health organization reports a shortage of water facing 25 % of the
planet’s inhabitants. Despite the water shortage problem, the available water faces
another problem which is the water quality as a large percentage of the available water
is not safe for human use, either because of industrial or domestic pollutants. Most of the
domestic pollutants have been successfully treated and removed from domestic
wastewater by many conventional physical and chemical treatment ways, however,
industrial pollutants are still on the track of developing different efficient methods for
achieving such as successful and practical treatment solutions to meet with the
developing regulations for the different pollutants. Phenol is one of the common
pollutants that may be found in different industrial applications as in its form or one of
its derivatives, such sources are the industries of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, dyes,
papers, oil refineries, pesticides, explosives, plastic, synthetic rubber, petrochemical, coal
processing, steel, Ceramic plants, food processing, coking, pulp and resins, it’s also may
be found in ground water tables after being percolated from landfills. Phenol and its
compounds have high toxic characteristics to the environments' components and aquatic
living creatures even at low concentrations. Generally, the existence of phenolic
derivatives and compounds in the environment and in the irrigation water is hazardous
and carcinogenic to human, fauna, flora, and microorganisms hence, the phenolic
pollutants must be treated from any effluent before discharging on water bodies.
Electrocoagulation (EC) is a very encouraging electro-chemical treatment process where
sacrificing anodes are utilized to produce metal ions by the oxidation of the anode while
hydrolysis takes place around the cathode to generate hydroxide anions by the reduction
of the cathode. The reaction between hydroxide anions and metal ions forms metal
hydroxides which are considered substitutes for coagulants. The electro-Fenton (EF)
process is an evolving process from the advanced oxidation methods. The EF method is
considered a combination between original Fenton process and electro-chemical process
mainly depending on the existence of a metal ion which is most commonly ferrous ion
in the literature, along with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to produce hydroxyl radicals
(•OH) that are capable of oxidizing numerous pollutants. This thesis aimed at inspecting
the copper electrodes capability and potential in removing phenol from wastewater by
EC and EF processes. Different influential parameters were studied such as initial pH
value, applied current density, concentration of H2O2 (only for EF), concentration of
initial phenol, type of electrolyte, type of supply current, and different electrodes
arrangements. Experiments were conducted for both synthetic and real wastewater at
room temperature while the water samples were collected at different time intervals to
observe the changes in pH value and phenol concentrations. Energy consumptions were
calculated and cost analysis was conducted. Comparisons were made between the
performance of electrocoagulation, electro-Fenton, and chemical coagulation. As for the
results, Copper electrodes have showed potential success in removing phenol from
synthetic and real wastewater in EC and EF technique. EC technique has achieved 49.1
% removal while EF achieved 41.1 % removal.

تهدف هذه الرسالة إلى تقييم قدرة أقطاب النحاس في إزالة ملوث الفينول من مياه الصرف باستخدام تقنيات الترويب الكهربى والفنتون الكهربى. تم دراسة عدد مختلف من عوامل التشغيل المؤثرة على كفاءة المعالجة وهم الأس الهيدروجينى، وتركيز ملوث الفينول، وكثافة التيار الكهربي، ونوع الملح المستخدم لزيادة التوصيلية الكهربية، وترتيب وتكوين الخلية الكهربية، ونوع التيار المستخدم، بالإضافة إلى تركيز بيروكسيد الهيدروجين وذلك لتحديد الظروف المثلى لعمل كلا التقنيتين وتحقيق أفضل كفاءة للمعالجة. تم إجراء التجارب لكل من مياه الصرف الاصطناعية والحقيقية في درجة حرارة الغرفة حيث تم جمع عينات المياه على مدد زمنية مختلفة لملاحظة التغيرات في الأس الهيدروجينى وتركيز الفينول. تم حساب استهلاكات الطاقة الكهربية وإجراء تحليل للتكاليف بالإضافة لمقارنة أداء تقنيات الترويب الكهربى والفنتون الكهربى والترويب الكيميائى. وقد أظهرت النتائج نجاح أقطاب النحاس في إزالة ملوث الفينول في المياه الاصطناعية والحقيقية في تقنيات الترويب الكهربى والفنتون الكهربى.  

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