Electrocoagulation with aluminum screen mesh electrodes for oil removal from oil-in-water emulsion

Abstract

Concentric cylindrical mesh screen electrodes were effectively used in the electrocoagulation (EC) method to treat machine oil effluents in a static batch system. A 3² experimental design was used with electric voltage (V_a) and polarity inversion time (t_pi) as input variables. Therefore, this work focused on the optimization of power consumption, electrode mass loss, oil content, and turbidity, maintaining pH within international standards. Monitoring pH evolution provided insights into the EC kinetics. This innovative geometry achieved a low energy consumption of about (2.5 ± 0.4) W, a specific energy requirement of (2.2 ± 0.2) kWh/kg for an oil content reduction of (91 ± 4) % and (97 ± 2) % turbidity reduction. These results stemmed from factors like the fast kinetics described by a Boltzmann sigmoidal function and the lack of a passivation layer to increase power consumption. Therefore, our results bring a strong contribution to treatments in static batch processes of oil emulsions in effluents.