Reuse of Wood-Based Industrial Wastewater through Optimization of Electrocoagulation Process Using Aluminum and Iron Electrodes

The wastewater treatment of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) is a harsh process because of its contents of high suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, high molecular weight of lignin, and fatty acids. Electrocoagulation (EC) process was used for efficient removal of pollutants and reusing the water. The impact of aluminum and iron as sacrificial anodes on removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solid (TSS), turbidity, and Total Solid (TS) were investigated. A full quadratic model was deployed to optimize the EC process variables for pretreatment of MDF effluent through response surface methodology. The model results confirmed that the COD and TSS removal efficiency was enhanced upon increasing voltage and residence time; hence, other pollutants initially increased and then, decreased at higher levels. The comparison between aluminum and iron electrodes indicated that the polluted removal efficiencies of aluminum were higher than the iron electrode for MDF wastewater. The optimum values of voltage and residence time for electrocoagulation of MDF wastewater with aluminum were 33 V and 25 min, which resulted in 93 %, 89 %, 67 %, and 76 % for COD, TSS, turbidity, and TS removal, respectively. The implementation of electrocoagulation provided a possibility for reusing water and reducing water consumption in the MDF manufacturing process.