Treatment of Tannery Effluent Using a Rotating Disc Electrochemical Reactor.

A novel rotating disc electrochemical (RDE) reactor has been developed to treat tannery effluent. Experiments were carried out in batch, batch recirculation, and once-through modes in the reactor covering wide range of operating conditions. The effect of current density (i), cathode rotation speed (R), electrolysis time (t), influent pH, and electrolyte flow rate (Q) on the pollutant removal efficiency and specific energy consumption was critically evaluated. The response of the process parameters were measured in terms of percentage total organic carbon (TOC) removal. The reaction mechanism of electro-oxidation was modeled using first-order kinetics. GC-MS and FT-IR analysis of the raw and treated effluent show that the tannery effluent can be effectively treated using the RDE reactor.