Sugar beet industry process wastewater treatment using electrochemical methods and optimization of parameters using response surface methodology.

Sugar production is a water intensive process that produces a large amount of wastewaters with high concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD), mostly consists of organic carbon compounds. Conventional treatment methods are limited to provide the necessary treatment of effluent COD to meet the regulatory limits prior to discharge. The treatment performance of electrooxidation (EO) and electrochemical peroxidation (ECP) for organic removal were investigated in a laboratory scale study. The experimental conditions were optimized for both EO and ECP using Box-Behnken Design (BBD) and the models provided highly significant quadratic models for both treatment methods. The effects of pH, H2O2 dosage, current density, and operation time were investigated using BBD. The results showed that EO could remove 75% of organics at optimum conditions of pH 5.3; current density of 48.5 mA cm-2; and operation time of 393 min. The predicted values were in reasonable agreement with measured values. ECP could remove total and soluble COD and total and dissolved organic carbon by 65, 64, 66, and 63%, respectively at optimum conditions of H2O2 dosage of 21 mL L-1; current density of 48 mA cm-2; and operation time of 361 min. The methods were compared based on removal efficiency and energy consumption during operation.