Dye Removal from Textile Wastewater Using Solar-Powered Electrocoagulation Reactor

A wide range of methods is currently used to remove various pollutants from wastewater. The current focus of research and industries is the use of electrocoagulation for wastewater treatment as this technique can be run using solar energy which produces in-site coagulant able remove dissolved and suspended pollutants at a short time and low cost. Dyes are currently categorised as a universal surface water pollution problem since many industries produce dyes polluted wastewater such as the textile industry. The current investigation focus on the use of electrocoagulation to treat acid orange 2 dye polluted synthetic wastewater and study the impact of the experimental parameters. An electrocoagulation reactor was developed using Iron electrodes and the energy was provided to the reactor using a solar panel. It was found that 100% of the pollutant was removed using electrocoagulation reactor runs on solar power. The Neutral pH level is favourable to remove the dye from textile wastewater. Higher current density and smaller distance between electrodes provide higher removal efficiency of the dye. Generally, it could be said that the best removal of the dye was achieved at pH level at 7, the current density at 2 mA/cm2, the spacing at 5 mm, and the treatment time at 40 minutes.