Removal of Lead from Water by Electrocoagulation Applying Response Surface Method (RSM) in a Uniquely Designed Rector

Abstract

Lead is highly harmful to living organisms even in very low concentration. Lead exposure in humans can have severe neurological and physiological repercussions. The objective of this study is treatment of lead from water by electrocoagulation using iron electrodes applying RSM in an uniquely designed reactor. The evaluation of the main and interaction effects of process variables such as current density, initial lead concentration, pH and Na2SO4 concentration as a supporting electrolyte on the removal efficiency of lead were analyzed applying RSM. The levels of the factors were determined with variance analysis and found to be 10-50 mAcm -2 with the increments of 10 units for current density, 50-250 mgL -1 with the increments of 50 units for initial lead concentration, 3-7 with the increments of 1 units for pH and 0.01-0.09 molL -1 with the increments of 0.02 units for Na2SO4 concentration. As a result of study, it was found that current density has a linear effect while current density and initial pH have quadratic effects on the removal efficiency. Lead removal efficiency reach a maximum value of 98.76% when the current density was 40 mA/cm 2 and initial pH was 4.7.