Electrochemical Sulfate Removal from Aqueous Solution Using Sandwich Panel Carbon Cloth Electrode by Steel Mesh: A laboratory study

Sulfate is one of the chemical pollutants in water that can cause adverse health effects such as digestive and blood problems at high concentrations in humans. Conversion of sulfate to substances such as hydrogen sulfide can corrode metal pipes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of electrochemical sulfate removal using a sandwich panel carbon cloth electrode with stainless steel mesh.

In this laboratory study, the electrochemical process including of carbon cloth electrode was used to remove sulfate from synthetic wastewater. Stainless steel mesh base was utilized to increase the conductivity of the carbon cloth electrode. The effects of variables such as sulfate concentration, pH value, current density and contact time were investigated. The standard method of turbidity assay using barium chloride was used to determine sulfate concentration. Based on the obtained results, mean and standard deviation were determined and data analysis was done by Student t-test.

The obtained results indicated that the optimum conditions for sulfate removal were pH 9, 100 mg/L initial sulfate concentration, current density of 20 mA/s2 during 90 min. 93.21%  efficiency was obtained for the sulfate removal. Increasing the current density, the contact time and initial pH value, the sulfate removal efficiency increased.

The obtained results showed that the electrochemical process including sandwich panel of carbon cloth with stainless steel electrode is an efficient and effective process for removal of sulfate from aqueous solution which can be utilized continuously due to no corrosion of carbon cloth electrode.