Combined magnetic field and electrocoagulation process for suspended solid removal from wastewater

Abstract

Innovative, cheap and effective methods of purifying and cleaning wastewater before discharging into any other water systems are needed. This paper study combined magnetic field and EC technology for removal suspended solid in wastewater treatment. The synthetic wastewater was treated in a batch mode by magnetic field combined with electrocoagulation. Wastewater sample was prepared from milk powder with a concentration of 700 mg/L. In the laboratory batch electrochemical cell, two monopolar iron (Fe) plate anodes and cathodes were employed as electrodes. DC current was varied fom 0.5 – 1 A, and operating time between 30 – 480 minutes. Three permanent magnets with different strengths were used in this experiment, namely NdFeB of 0.55T, SmCo of 0.16T and AlNiCo of 0.08T. The results showed that combined magnetic field and EC process has improved suspended solid removal from wastewater compared to EC process alone. The suspended solid and turbidity removals were as high as 92.3 % and 81.25 % with the combined process, while for EC process was as high as 89.3 % and 75.16 %.