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ABSTRACT
Coal Gasification is considered as an ace technology compared to other non renewable energy producing technologies
such as petroleum and natural gas. The effluent generated from coal gasification contains high amounts of organic and
toxic compounds. The present work is focused on removal of COD from the Coal Gasifier effluent by Electro-Coagulation
(EC) using Aluminium electrode. The purpose of this research is to reduce the pollution which is generally caused by Coal
Gasifier effluent. In the process of EC, metal cations are released into water through dissolving metal electrodes.
Simultaneously, beneficial side reactions can remove flocculated material from the water, which is an advanced
alternative for chemical coagulation and flocculation. The electrochemical reactor performance was analysed in batch
reactor of the effluent having constant inter-electrodes distance. The effect of process parameters such as Electrolysis
Time, pH, and Voltage on COD removal % was studied. During EC process the optimum values of process parameters
are found to be Electrolysis Time-60 min, pH-8 and Voltage-9 V. The parameters used in this experiment were optimized
by using Response Surface Methodology. It has been observed that the predicted values are in good agreement with
experimental values with a correlation coefficient of 0.998.
Keywords: Coal Gasifier Effluent, COD, Electro-Coagulation (EC), Aluminium Electrode, Optimization.
8 i-manager’s Journal on Future Engineering & Technology, Vol. 12 ·No.2 ·November 2016 - January 2017
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i-manager’s Journal on Future Engineering & Technology, Vol. 12 ·No.2 ·November 2016 - January 2017 9
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500 rpm. Figure 1 is the pictorial representation of the at an optimum solution for a particular pollutant. The
experimental setup. precipitation of a pollutant begins at a particular pH. The
3.2 Methodology pollutant removal efficiency decreases by either
increasing or decreasing the pH of the solution for the
Experiments were carried out in a 1000 ml of batch
optimum pH.
electrochemical reactor Aluminium electrodes of
dimensions 8x3x0.1 cm were used as anode and 3.3.3 Effect of Voltage
cathode. The electrodes were connected with regulated Voltage is related directly to the current density. So
power supply to supply electrical energy to the system. increases in voltage increases the current flow. With an
The experiments were carried out under potentially static increases in the voltage, the anode dissolution rate
conditions covering wide range of operating conditions increases. This leads to increases in the number of metal
and samples were collected and analysed periodically. hydroxide flocs results in the increase in pollutant removal
The anode was weighed before and after the experiment efficiency. An increase in voltage above the optimum
for each experiment run to estimate the electrode voltage does not result in an increase in pollutant removal
consumption. The electrodes were connected with efficiency as sufficient number of metal hydroxide flocs is
regulated power supply to supply electrical energy to the available for the sedimentation of the pollutant.
system. During the electrochemical reaction, the organic 3.3.4 Optimization using RSM
compound in the effluent was oxidized at the anode and
In the present study, CCD was applied to investigate and
a reduction reaction occurred at the cathode.
validate the process parameters affecting the removal of
3.3 COD Analysis COD. pH (A), Voltage (B), and Time (C) are input variable
The organic matter present in sample gets oxidized parameters. The interval of the allowed values for these
completely by Potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) in the factors was deduced from the preliminary tests carried
presence of Sulphuric acid (H2SO4), Silver sulphate (AgSO4) out (Table 1). The factor levels were coded as -1.68 (low), 0
and Mercury sulphate (HgSO4) to produce CO2 and H2O. (central point or middle) and 1.68 (high). For this response
The sample is refluxed with a known amount of Potassium (Y), a polynomial model of the second degree is
dichromate (K2Cr2O7) in the Sulphuric acid medium and established to quantify the influence of the variables.
the excess potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) is determined 4. Results and Discussions
by titration against ferrous ammonium sulphate, using
The influence of process parameters such as pH, Voltage
ferroin as an indicator. The dichromate consumed by the
and time on the COD reduction were studied on “one
sample is equivalent to the amount of O2 required to
parameter a time basis” i.e., by changing one
oxidize the organic matter. (APHA, AWWA ,WEF, 1995, V.
independent variable while fixing the others at a certain
Sridevi, et al., 2016).
constant level for the Al electrodes was studied.
3.3.1 Effect of Electrolysis Time
4.1 Effect of Electrolysis Time
The Electrolysis Time has a significant effect on the
The effect of Electrolysis Time was studied by keeping
pollutant removal. The pollutant removal efficiency
other two parameters constant at pH 7 and voltage 9 V.
increases with increase in the Electrolysis Time. But beyond
The agitation speed was kept constant at 500 rpm and
the optimum Electrolysis Time, the pollutant removal
spacing between the electrodes was nearly 20 mm. On
efficiency becomes constant and does not increase with
increasing the Electrolysis Time, the % of COD removal
an increase in the Electrolysis Time because the metal
increased up to 60 min and then slightly decreased as
hydroxide ions are formed by the dissolution of anode.
shown in Figure 2. By increasing the Electrolysis Time
3.3.2 Effect of pH reduces the efficiency because metal hydroxide ions
The maximum pollutant removal efficiency was obtained formed by dissolution of anode. The maximum % COD
COD Exp (%) =95.22+2.38 A+0.96 B-1.76 C-1.13 interactions. The R2 value is always between 0 and 1. The
AB+0.15 AC-2.53 BC-7.09 A2-8.11 B2-1.94 C2 (1) closer the R2 value is to 1, the stronger the model is and the
The statistical significance of the ratio of mean square better it predicts the response. In this case, the value of the
variation due to regression and mean square residual determination coefficient is R2 =0.998.
error was tested using ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). The 4.5 Optimization of Operating Conditions
ANOVA for the second order equation is fit for COD removal The response surface contour plots of COD removal
is resented in Tables 3. efficiency over independent variables such as pH,
The large value of F indicates that, most of the variation in voltage and Electrolysis Time are shown in Figures 5, 6,
the response can be explained by the regression and 7. The contour plots given in Figures 5, 6, and 7 show
equation. The associated p value is used to estimate the relative effects of two variables when the volume of
whether F is large enough to indicate statistical solution is kept constant. It was proved that the aluminium
significance of the high coefficient of R2 value means best
fit of the model. The R2 value provides a measure of how
much variability in the observed response values can be
explained by the experimental variables and their
COD COD
Run pH Voltage(V) Time(min)
Expt (%) Pred (%)
M.Tech Industrial pollution Control Engineering in 2016 from Andhra University I have completed
my B.tech Chemical Engineering in 2013 from GMR IT, Rajam. I published one review article in AU
College of journal. My areas of interest include, design of industrial effluent and sewage treatment
plants.
Andhra University. She did her Ph.D in the 2011 from Andhra University. She has significantly
contributed in the field of Biotechnology. She has published more than 70 research and review
articles in reputed National and International journals. She is author for more than three books. She
has attended more than 30 conferences and workshops. She Got a Certificate of Excellence by
nd
Education Expo TV (Research wing for Excellence in Professional Education & Industry) in the 2
th
Academic Brilliance Awards -14, Andhra Pradesh on 09 February, 2014.
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University. She did her Ph.D in the 2011 from JNTU, Ananatapur. She has significantly contributed
in the field of Industrial Pollution and Control Engineering. She has worked on Biodegradation, Bio
reactor design and Industrial Pollution & its control. She has published more than 90 research and
review articles in reputed National and International journals. She is author for more than three
books. She has attended more than 30 conferences and workshops and got a credit of “prestigious
author” from OMICS publications and got an award of ”Scientist of the year 2012” , “Eminent
Her ongoing projects are UGC for an amount of 16 lakhs and NTPC project
4. L. Neelima Chandra Lekha currently working as Asst. Professor in the Department of Chemical
Engg, SVKR Engineering College.She obtained her M.Tech in Mineral Processing in 2016 from
Andhra University Visakhapatnam and B.Tech in Chemical Engineering in 2013 from Andhra
University. Her areas of interest include petroleum exploration and renewable energy resources.