Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

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Desalination
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / d e s a l

Copper, chromium and nickel removal from metal plating wastewater

by electrocoagulation
Feryal Akbal , Selva Camc
Ondokuz Mays University, Engineering Faculty, Environmental Engineering Department, 55139 Kurupelit, Samsun, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 March 2010
Received in revised form 30 October 2010
Accepted 1 November 2010
Available online 4 December 2010
Keywords:
Electrocoagulation
Metal plating wastewater
Copper
Chromium
Nickel

a b s t r a c t
Removal of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) from metal plating wastewater by electrocoagulation
with iron and aluminum electrodes with monopolar congurations was investigated. The inuence of
electrode material, current density, wastewater pH and conductivity on removal performance was explored.
The results showed that metal removal increased with increasing current density, pH and conductivity. The
efciency of different electrode materials (iron, aluminum) was compared. The results indicated that
electrocoagulation with an FeAl electrode pair was very efcient and was able to achieve 100% Cu, 100% Cr
and 100% Ni removal at an electrocoagulation time of 20 min, a current density of 10 mA/cm2 and a pH of 3.0.
Corresponding energy and electrode consumptions were determined as 10.07 kWh/m3 and 1.08 kg/m3,
respectively.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Industrial wastewaters like electroplating or acid mine wastewaters contain various kinds of toxic substances such as cyanides,
alkaline cleaning agents, degreasing solvents, oil, fat and metals. Most
of the metals such as copper, nickel, chromium, silver and zinc are
harmful when they are discharged without treatment [1]. Various
techniques have been employed for the treatment of heavy metals,
including precipitation, adsorption, biosorption, ion-exchange, electrodialysis and membrane separation. Precipitation is the most
applicable among these techniques and is considered to be the most
economical [2]. It is based on chemical coagulation by adding lime to
raise the pH and aluminum or iron salt to remove colloidal matter as
hydroxides. Although, it is shown to be quite effective in treating
industrial efuents, the chemical coagulation may induce secondary
pollution caused by added chemical substances. This drawback,
together with the need for low cost effective treatment, encouraged
many studies on the use of electrocoagulation for the treatment of
several industrial efuents [3].
Electrocoagulation is a process consisting of creating metallic
hydroxide ocks within the wastewater by electrodissolution of
soluble anodes, usually made of iron or aluminum. The generation of
metallic cations takes place at the anode, due to the electrochemical
oxidation of the iron or aluminum, whereas at the cathode the
production of H2 typically occurs [4]. Electrocoagulation process
involves many chemical and physical phenomena, such as discharge,

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 3623121919; fax: +90 3624576094.

E-mail address: fakbal@omu.edu.tr (F. Akbal).
0011-9164/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2010.11.001

anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, coagulation, electrophoretic

migration, and adsorption [5]. Likewise, during an electrocoagulation
process, liquid is not enriched with anions and salts content does not
increase, compared with chemical metal precipitation. This contributes to the production of metallic sludges which are compact using
electrocoagulation compared with those generated by chemical
precipitation. Moreover, electrocoagulation requires simple equipment, small retention time and is easy to operate. These characteristics contribute to the reduction of operating cost for industrial
applications [6].
Electrocoagulation has been successfully used for the treatment of
wastewaters such as electroplating wastewater [3], chemical mechanical polishing wastewater [7,8], textile wastewater [9], olive mill
wastewater [1012], laundry wastewater [13], tannery wastewater
[14,15], pulp and paper mill industry wastewater, [16,17], baker's
yeast wastewater [18] and slaughterhouse wastewater [19].
In this study, the efciency of electrocoagulation in removing
copper, chromium and nickel from wastewater of an electroplating
plant was investigated. The effect of wastewater characteristics, initial
pH and conductivity and operational variables, current density,
electrode material and treatment time, on the removal efciency
was explored to determine the optimum operational conditions.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Characterization of wastewater
The wastewater used in this study was collected from the efuent
of a metal plating plant. The wastewater was characterized for pH,
conductivity, Cu, Cr and Ni and the data were presented in Table 1. The

F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

Table 1
Characteristics of wastewater.
Characteristics

Value

Cu (mg/L)
Cr (mg/L)
Ni (mg/L)
pH
Conductivity (mS/cm)

45
44.5
394
3.00
2.00

efuent was ltered using a screen lter to remove suspended solids

before it was used for the subsequent studies.
2.2. Electrocoagulation procedure
The electrocoagulation cell was constructed from plexiglas having
a dimension of 11 cm 9 cm 11 cm. The experimental equipment
schematically was shown in Fig. 1. The total volume of wastewater in
each experiment was approximately 650 mL. Aluminum (Al) and iron
(Fe) plates 45 mm height 75mm width 3mm thickness in dimension was used for the sacricial electrodes, arranged in monopolar
congurations. In each batch, six plates were constructed in the
electrochemical reactor and the distance between plates was xed at
approximately 10 mm. The current was maintained constant by
means of a precision DC power supply (GW GPC-3060D) characterized by the ranges 06 A for current and 030 V for voltage. A Jenway
Conductivity Meter (Model 4071) was employed to determine the
conductivity of the wastewater. The conductivity of wastewater was
raised up and adjusted to different values by adding NaCl. The pH of
the wastewater was measured using a pH meter (InoLab WTW) and
adjusted by adding 0.1 N NaOH solution. The wastewater was agitated
with a magnetic stirrer during electrocoagulation at 200 rpm.
Electrodes were sanded and washed with dilute HCl between the
experiments. To follow the progress of the treatment, samples of
10 ml were periodically taken from the electrocoagulation cell then
ltered (0.45 m) to eliminate sludge formed during electrolysis. The
residual concentrations of metal ions were determined by atomic
absorption spectrophotometer (UNICAM 929).
2.3. Calculations
Electrical energy consumption is a very important economical
parameter in the electrocoagulation process. The electrical energy
consumption was calculated using the following equation [20]:
E=

U:I:t
V

Fig. 1. Experimental system.

215

where E is the energy consumption (kWh/m3), U is the applied

voltage (V), I is the current intensity (A), t is the electrocoagulation
time (h), and V is the volume of the treated wastewater (L).
The amount of electrode dissolved was calculated theoretically by
using Faraday's law.
C=

I:t:M
Z:F:V

where C (g/L) is the iron or aluminum concentration in the electrolytic

cell, I is the current intensity (A), t is the electrocoagulation time (s),
M is the molecular weight of the anode (g/mol), Z is the chemical
equivalence, F is the Faraday constant (96500 C/mol) and V is the
volume of the treated wastewater (L).
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Effect of current density on metal removal
Different materials could be used as electrodes for electrocoagulation and electrode material has been known to be an important
factor inuencing the performance of the electrocoagulation process
[21,22]. The effect of current density was investigated in the range
2.510 mA/cm2 using four different combinations of aluminum and
iron electrodes at pH 3.0 and a conductivity of 2 mS/cm. Fig. 2 shows
the effect of current density on Cu removal from metal plating
wastewater, by electrocoagulation using four different electrode
combinations. As expected, it was found that, the removal efciency
increased with the increase of current density. When an FeFe
electrode pair was used 64.2, 95.9, 98.2 and 99.9% Cu removal was
achieved after 15 min of electrocoagulation at current densities of 2.5,
5, 7.5 and 10 mA/cm2, respectively. Energy and electrode consumptions were determined as 0.60 kWh/m3 and 0.19 kg/m3, 1.98 kWh/m3
and 0.40 kg/m3, 4.38 kWh/m3 and 0.59 kg/m3 and 7.00 kWh/m3 and
0.81 kg/m3 at 15 min of electrocoagulation time for current densities
of of 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 mA/cm2. When an AlAl electrode pair was
used 56.7, 76.3, 80.5 and 99.7% Cu removal was found at current
densities of 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 mA/cm2, respectively. The removal of Cu
was better with FeFe and FeAl electrode pairs than with AlAl and
AlFe electrode pairs. The reason for this behaviour could be the
adsorption capacity of ferric oxides being much higher than
aluminum oxides. Energy consumption increased from 0.64 kWh/m3
to 6.70 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption increased from 0.06 to
0.26 kg/m3 when current density increased from 2.5 mA cm 2
to10 mA cm 2 at 15 min of electrocoagulation time.
Fig. 3 shows the effect of current density on Cr removal from metal
plating wastewater, by electrocoagulation using four different
electrode combinations. An increase in current density from 2.5 to
10 mA cm 2 yields an increase in the efciency of Cr removal from
78.4 to 99.9% for the FeFe electrode pair after 10 min of electrocoagulation. The Cr was completely removed after 30 min of
electrocoagulation at a current density of 2.5 mA cm 2 with an
energy consumption of 0.42 kWh/m3 and an electrode consumption
of 0.13 kg/m3 and after 10 min of electrocoagulation at 10 mA cm 2
with an energy consumption of 4.57 kWh/m3 and an electrode
consumption of 0.54 kg/m3. Cr removal ranged between 66.393.2%
for the AlAl electrode pair, 80.399.7% for the FeAl electrode
pair and 73.996.9% for the Al-Fe electrode pair "after the same
electrocoagulation time, respectively. The energy consumptions
increased from 0.40 to 4.36 kWh/m3 for the AlAl electrode pair,
from 0.40 to 4.67 kWh/m3 for the FeAl electrode pair and from 0.34
to 3.89 kWh/m3 for the AlFe electrode pair, with increasing current
density from 2.5 to 10 mA/cm2 after min 10 of electrocoagulation.
The electrode consumptions were 0.040.17 kg/m3 for the AlAl
electrode pair, 0.130.54 kg/m3 for the FeAl electrode pair and 0.04
0.17 kg/m3 for the AlFe electrode pair, respectively.

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F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

Fig. 2. Effect of current density on Cu removal from electroplating wastewater (Cu: 45 mg/L, pH: 3.0, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

Fig. 4 shows the effect of current density on Ni removal from metal

plating wastewater, by electrocoagulation using four different electrode combinations. The Ni removal increased from 71.3 to 99.7% for
the FeFe pair, from 55.6 to 99.9% for the AlAl pair, from 71.4 to 99.9%

for the FeAl pair and from 53.4 to 89.7% for the AlFe pair when
current density increased from 2.5 to 10 mA cm 2 after 30 min of
electrocoagulation. Energy consumptions also increased from 1.25 to
15.10 kWh/m3 for the Fe/Fe pair, from 1.32 to 14.02 kWh/m3 for the

Fig. 3. Effect of current density on Cr removal from electroplating wastewater (Cr: 44.5 mg/L, pH: 3.0, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

217

Fig. 4. Effect of current density on Ni removal from electroplating wastewater (Ni: 394 mg/L, pH: 3.0, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

AlAl pair, from 1.40 to 15.42 kWh/m3 for the FeAl pair and from 1.09
to 11.99 kWh/m3 for the AlFe pair when current density increased
from 2.5 to 10 mA cm 2 after 30 min electrocoagulation time. The
electrode consumptions were 0.391.62 kg/m3 for the FeFe electrode
pair, 0.130.52 kg/m3 for the AlAl electrode pair, 0.391.62 kg/m3 for
the FeAl electrode pair and 0.130.52 kg/m3 for the AlFe electrode
pair, respectively.
It can be seen from Figs. 24 that the removal efciency of
metals increased with the increase of current density in the range 2.5
5 mA/cm2. Further increase of the current density results only in a
small increase of the metal removal efciency. Moreover increasing
current density increases energy and electrode consumption. Therefore a current density of 5 mA/cm2 was chosen as the optimum
current density for the subsequent of experiments. The dissolving rate
of the Al and Fe electrode increased with increasing current density.
Consequently, Cu, Cr and Ni removal increased with increasing
current density because more Al3+ and Fe3+ passed to wastewater
at higher current density and the formation rate of Al(OH)3 and Fe
(OH)3 increased. The aluminum and iron hydroxide ocs act as
adsorbents for metal ions and eliminate them from the wastewater.
Simultaneously, the hydroxyl ions which are produced at the cathode
increase the pH of wastewater and may induce coprecipitation of Cu,
Cr and Ni in the form of their corresponding hydroxides. It is well
known that current density determines the coagulant dosage rate,
bubble production rate, and ocs growth, which can inuence the
treatment efciency of the electrocoagulation. In addition, it was
demonstrated that bubbles density increases and their size decreases
with increasing current density, resulting in a greater upwards ux
and a faster removal of pollutants and sludge otation [23,24].
3.2. Effect of wastewater pH on metal removal
The initial pH has a considerable inuence on the performance of
an electrocoagulation process [25,26]. The effect of the initial pH of

wastewater on Cu, Cr and Ni removal was explored in the range of

pH 3.09.0 at a current density of 5 mA/cm2 and a conductivity of
2 mS/cm using four different combinations of aluminum and iron
electrodes. Fig. 5 shows the effect of wastewater pH on the Cu
removal. An increase in pH from 3.0 to 9.0 yields an increase in the
efciency of Cu removal from 95.5 to 98.7% for the FeFe electrode
pair and from 73.2 to 97.4% for the AlAl electrode pair after 10 min of
electrocoagulation. The energy and electrode consumptions were
1.04 kWh/m3 and 0.27 kg/m3 for the FeFe electrode pair and
1.37 kWh/m3 and 0.09 kg/m3 for the AlAl electrode pair when the
initial pH of the solution was 9.0 at an electrocoagulation time of
10 min. Cu removal varied between 75.1 and 99.6% for the FeAl
electrode pair and 67.8 and 95.5% for the AlFe electrode pair after the
same electrocoagulation time. At pH 9.0 Cu was completely removed
after 20 min of electrocoagulation with energy consumption of
3.68 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of 0.17 kg/m3 for the Fe
Al electrode pair.
Fig. 6 shows the Cr removal from metal plating wastewater, by
electrocoagulation using four different electrode combinations. When
pH was varied between 3.0 and 9.0, Cr removal efciencies varied
from 91.1 to 95.1% for the FeFe electrode pair, from 82.7 to 93.5% for
the AlAl electrode pair, from 82.3 to 97.4% for the FeAl electrode
pair and from 91.7 to 97.2% for the AlFe electrode pair, after 10 min of
electrocoagulation. Energy consumptions were 1.35, 1.43, 1.17 and
1.24 kWh/m3 at pH 3.0 and 1.04, 1.37, 1.76 and 1.14 kWh/m3 at pH
9.0, for FeFe, AlAl, FeAl and AlFe electrode pairs, at the
same electrocoagulation time, respectively. Complete removal of Cr
was achieved after 30 min of electrocoagulation at pH 9.0 with
energy consumption of 5.84 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of
0.81 kg/m3 for the FeAl electrode pair. When FeFe, AlAl and AlFe
electrode combinations were used, Cr was completely removed after
40 min of electrocoagulation with energy consumption of 4.26, 5.50
and 4.57 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of 1.08, 0.35 and
0.35 kg/m3, respectively.

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F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

Fig. 5. Effect of pH on Cu removal from electroplating wastewater (Cu: 45 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

Fig. 7 shows the effect of wastewater pH on Ni removal by

electrocoagulation using four different electrode combinations. Ni
removal varied between 76.9 and 99.3% for the FeFe electrode pair,
84.999.1% for the AlAl electrode pair, 74.499.9% for the FeAl

electrode pair and 73.499.1% for the AlFe electrode pair when pH
was varied between 3.0 and 9.0 after 30 min of electrocoagulation.
The lowest Ni concentrations were obtained at pH 9.0 for all electrode
pairs. The energy and electrode consumptions were 3.19 kWh/m3 and

Fig. 6. Effect of pH on Cr removal from electroplating wastewater (Cr: 44.5 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

219

Fig. 7. Effect of pH on Ni removal from electroplating wastewater (Ni: 394 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, conductivity: 2 mS/cm).

0.81 kg/m3 for the FeFe electrode pair, 4.20 kWh/m3 and 0.26 kg/m3
for the AlAl electrode pair, 5.84 kWh/m3 and 0.81 kg/m3 for the Fe
Al electrode pair, and 3.50 kWh/m3 and 0.26 kg/m3 for the AlFe
electrode pair at pH 9.0 after 30 min of electrocoagulation.
It can be seen from Figs. 57 that metal removal efciencies
increased with increasing pH and highest removal efciencies were
obtained at pH 9.0. The high efciency of metal removal at high pH,
might be ascribed to the precipitation of their hydroxides at the
cathode. In case of iron anode, when solution pH becomes acidic, the
oxidation of ferrous iron (Fe II) to ferric iron (Fe III) diminishes, and
therefore metal removal decreases. Alkaline pH, however, tends to
favor Fe (II) to Fe (III) oxidation as well as complex polymerization.
Finally, hydroxylated colloidal polymers and an insoluble precipitate
of hydrated ferric oxide were formed and the removal efciency was
increased [27]. In case of aluminum anode, at low pH, such as 23,
cationic monomeric species Al3+ and Al(OH)+
2 predominate. When
pH is between 4 and 9, the Al3+ and OH ions generated by the
electrodes react to form various monomeric species such as Al(OH)+
2 ,
3+
4+
Al(OH)2+
2 , and polymeric species such as Al6(OH)15 , Al7(OH)17 , and
Al13(OH)5+
34 . These species nally transform into insoluble amorphous
Al(OH)3(s) through complex polymerization/precipitation kinetics.
The formation of Al(OH)3(s) is therefore optimal in the 49 pH range
[28].
3.3. Effect of wastewater conductivity on metal removal
The effect of wastewater conductivity on metal removal was
investigated using NaCl as the electrolyte in the range of 26 mS/cm at
current density of 5 mA/cm2 and pH 3.0 using four different
combinations of aluminum and iron electrodes. Fig. 8 shows the
effect of conductivity on Cu removal from metal plating wastewater.
When an FeFe electrode pair was used, 99.9% Cu removal was
achieved in 60 min of electrocoagulation with energy consumption of
8.56 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of 1.62 kg/m3 at a conductivity of 2 mS/cm. For a higher conductivity of 6 mS/cm, the same Cu

removal could be attained in 20 min of electrocoagulation with

energy consumption of 1.48 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of
0.54 kg/m3. After 20 min of electrocoagulation, the Cu removal
efciencies were 96.7% for the AlAl electrode pair, 99.9% for the
FeAl electrode pair and 98.4% for the AlFe electrode pair at
conductivity of 6 mS/cm, respectively. Energy and electrode consumptions were 0.39 kWh/m3 and 0.17 kg/m3 for the AlAl electrode
pair, 1.24 kWh/m3 and 0.54 kg/m3 for the FeAl electrode pair and
0.99 kWh/m3 and 0.17 kg/m3 for the AlFe electrode pair at
conductivity of 6 mS/cm in the same duration.
Fig. 9 shows the effect of conductivity on Cr removal from metal
plating wastewater. The Cr removal efciency of 99.9% was achieved
with an energy consumption of 2.7 kWh/m3 and electrode consumption of 0.54 kg/m3 at a conductivity of 2 mS/cm after 20 min of
electrocoagulation for the FeFe electrode pair. When conductivity
was 6 mS/cm, the same removal efciency was achieved after 10 min
of electrocoagulation with an energy consumption of 0.67 kWh/m3
and electrode consumption of 0.27 kg/m3. The Cr removal efciency
was 92.4% at conductivity of 2 mS/cm and 99.9% at conductivity of
6 mS/cm after 30 min of electrocoagulation for AlAl electrode pair.
The energy and electrode consumptions were 2.08 kWh/m3 and
0.26 kg/m3 at conductivity of 6 mS/cm in the same duration.
Fig. 10 shows the effect of conductivity on Ni removal from metal
plating wastewater. The Ni removal varied from 76.9% at 2 mS/cm to
99.9% at 6 mS/cm after an electrocoagulation time of 30 min for the
FeFe electrode pair. As the wastewater conductivity increased
from 2 mS/cm to 6 mS/cm, the Ni removal increased from 84.9 to
99.7% for the AlAl electrode pair, from 74.4 to 99% for the FeAl
electrode pair and from 73.4 to 90.6% for the AlFe electrode pair.
The residual Ni concentrations were below 1 mg/L after 60 min of
electrocoagulation at conductivity of 6 mS/cm for all electrode combinations. Energy consumption decreased with increasing conductivity.
Energy and electrode consumptions were determined as 2.31 kWh/m3
and 0.81 kg/m3 for the FeFe electrode pair, 2.08 kWh/m3 and
0.26 kg/m3 for the AlAl electrode pair, 1.78 kWh/m3 and 0.81 kg/m3

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F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

Fig. 8. Effect of conductivity on Cu removal from electroplating wastewater (Cu: 45 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, pH: 3.0).

for the FeAl electrode pair and 1.41 kWh/m3 and 0.26 kg/m3 for the
AlFe electrode pair at conductivity of 6 mS/cm after 30 min of
electrocoagulation.
It can be seen from Figs. 810 that the highest conductivity produced
the quickest treatment with an effective removal of Cu, Cr and Ni from

metal plating wastewater. When the conductivity of the wastewater

increased, the current ow during electrocoagulation increased; as a
result, the efciency of metal removal was enhanced. Golder et al. [29]
reported that the availability of metal coagulants increases with
increasing conductivity. Increasing wastewater conductivity resulted

Fig. 9. Effect of conductivity on Cr removal from electroplating wastewater (Cr: 44.5 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, pH: 3.0).

F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

221

Fig. 10. Effect of conductivity on Ni removal from electroplating wastewater (Ni: 394 mg/L, current density: 5 mA/cm2, pH: 3.0).

in the reduction of cell voltages that caused a decrease in electrical

energy consumption [30].
3.4. Metal removal performances of various treatment processes
The comparison of metal removal with different processes was
given in Table 2. Ozaki et al. [31] investigated the removal performance
Table 2
Comparison of metal removal performances of various treatment technologies.
Treatment method

Removal
efciency
(%)

Reference

Metal

pH

Concentration
(ppm)

Ni

3
7
3
7
3
7
NA
6.5

26
26
17
17
167
167
200
21

98
99
98
99
95
99
98
97

[31]
[31]
[31]
[31]
[31]
[31]
[32]
[33]

Ni

7
7
7
7
7
7
NA

50
100
50
100
50
100
25

99
99
98
97
93
76
100

[34]
[34]
[34]
[34]
[34]
[34]
[35]

Cu

NA

200

96

[32]

Ni

3
7
3
7
3
7

394
394
45
45
44.5
44.5

98
99
100
100
100
100

This
This
This
This
This
This

Reverse osmosis

Cu
Cr
Cu
Ni
Ultraltration
Ni
Cu
Cr

Nanoltration
Electrocoagulation

4. Conclusion
Cu
Cr

NA: not available.

of an ultra-low-pressure reverse osmosis membrane for the separation

of Cu, Cr and Ni ions from both synthetic and electroplating wastewater.
They reported 99% Cr rejection, 99% Cu rejection and 99% Ni rejection
with an initial Cr concentration of 167 mg/L, a Cu concentration of
17 mg/L and an Ni concentration of 26 mg/L at pH 7.0 and a feed
pressure of 450 kPa. Qdais and Moussa [32] investigated the effectiveness of reverse osmosis and nanoltration technologies for copper
removal from synthetic wastewater. At the initial metal concentration
of 200 mg/L, 98% of Cu removal could be attained by using reverse
osmosis, while nanoltration was capable of removing 96% of Cu. These
results indicate that both types of the membrane ltration are effective
for Cu removal from contaminated wastewater. Qin et al. [33]
investigated the the treatment of spent rinsewater from metal plating
using a reverse osmosis process using CPA2 membranes. They found
97% nickel rejection with an operating pressure of 300 psi. Barakat and
Schmidt [34] employed a polymer-enhanced ultraltration process for
the removal of Cu, Cr and Ni ions from synthetic solution. They reported
that 99% Cu rejection, 99% Cr rejection and 95% Ni rejection were
achieved with an initial metal concentration of 25 mg/L and 1 bar of
pressure. Kryvoruchko et al. [35] investigated purication of the water
contaminated by and Ni ions by use of ultraltration in combination
with chelation. They reported that the maximum retention coefcient
of Ni ions by the UPM-20 membrane has been shown to be 100%, when
the poly (ethylene imine) was used as a chelating agent. In this study
100% Cu, 100% Cr and 99% Ni removal was obtained after 60 min of
electrocoagulation at pH 7 and current density of 5 mA/cm2 with an
initial Cu concentration of 45 mg/L, a Cr concentration of 44.5 mg/L, and
an Ni concentration of 394 mg/L.

study
study
study
study
study
study

The present study attempted to investigate the applicability of an

electrocoagulation method in the treatment of metal plating wastewater. The inuence of variables such as current density, electrode material,
electrolysis time, wastewater pH and conductivity on the removal of
metals was investigated. The results show that electrocoagulation can

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F. Akbal, S. Camc / Desalination 269 (2011) 214222

effectively reduce metal ions to a very low level. Cu, Cr and Ni are
removed by precipitation as hydroxides by the hydroxyl ions formed at
the cathode via water electrolysis and by co-precipitation with
aluminum and iron hydroxides. The results show that the Cu, Cr and
Ni removal efciency increased with increasing current density. At
higher current density, the formation rate of aluminum and iron
hydroxide ocs increased. The aluminum and iron hydroxide ocs act
as adsorbents for metal ions and eliminate them from the wastewater.
The highest rate for Cu, Cr and Ni removals was obtained at pH 9.0. The
high efciency of metal removal, at high pH, might be ascribed to the
precipitation of their hydroxides at the cathode. The FeFe and FeAl
electrode combinations were more effective for the removal of Cu, Cr and
Ni from metal plating wastewater. Electrocoagulation of the metal
plating wastewater with an FeAl electrode pair was able to achieve
100% Cu, 100% Cr and 100% Ni removal at a current density of 10 mA/cm2
and pH 3.0 after an elecrocoagulation time of 20 min with energy and
electrode consumptions of 10.07 kWh/m3 and 1.08 kg/m3, respectively.
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