Ng, S. P., Wu, W., Qian, M., Zhu, Y. P., Deng, X., Chng, S., Tan, Y. J., Kek, Y. Q., Yong, S. J. Z., Low, L. W., & Yan, W. (2025). Electrocoagulation of Spent Coolant by Dissimilar Fe-Al Combination. Electrochem, 6(3), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/electrochem6030026
Abstract:
Electrocoagulation is rapidly gaining prominence in wastewater treatment due to its capabilities and less reliance on additional chemicals. While a lot of research efforts have been focused on the influence of the anode material, power supply, and reactor design, the contribution of the cathode to contaminant removal has been less explored. In this study, we investigated the performance of stainless steel (SS-304) and aluminium (Al-6061) electrodes in both similar and dissimilar configurations for a 120 min electrocoagulation treatment of spent machinery coolant. The anode–cathode configurations, including SS-SS, Al-Al, SS-Al and Al-SS, have been investigated. Additionally, we examined the effects of the initial pH and agitation methods on the process performance. Our findings indicated that the type of cathode could significantly affect the floc formation and contaminant removal. Notably, the combination of an Al anode and SS cathode (Al(A)-SS(C)) demonstrated a synergistic improvement in the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), with a removal of 84.3% within a short treatment time (<20 min). The final COD removal of 91.4% was achieved with a turbidity level close to 12 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). The Al anode readily released the Al ions and formed light flocs at the early stage of electrocoagulation, while the SS cathode generated heavy Fe hydroxides that mitigated the flotation effect. These results demonstrated the cathode’s significant contribution in electrocoagulation, leading to potential savings in the treatment time required.
License type:
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research - RIE2025 Manufacturing, Trade and Connectivity (MTC) Industry Alignment Fund Pre-positioning (IAF-PP)
Grant Reference no. : M24N2a0041
This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research - Career Development Fund (CDF)
Grant Reference no. : C233312024