Enhanced Treatment of Concentrated Residual Baths from Cotton and Polyester Dyeing via Electrocoagulation: Leveraging the Benefits of Waste Stream Mixing

Abstract

This study explores the feasibility and optimization of electrocoagulation (EC) using iron electrodes for treating concentrated textile wastewater specifically from two sources: cotton dyeing wastewater (CDW) and polyester dyeing wastewater (PDW). Electrocoagulation experiments were conducted on both individual effluents and their mixtures in various ratios. The results demonstrated that a mixture of 10% CDW and 90% PDW significantly enhanced pollutant removal, achieving up to 87.5% COD reduction and complete turbidity elimination. The optimal treatment conditions were determined to be a pH range of 7–8, a current intensity of 1 A, an interelectrode distance (IED) of 2 cm, and an electrolysis time of 30 min. Additionally, this study assessed the effect of effluent volume on treatment efficiency. The specific energy consumption and specific iron consumption at 1 A were found to be 0.016 kWh and 1.29 g per g of COD removed, respectively. These results suggest that EC is an effective and cost-efficient method for treating textile wastewater.