TITLE:
Boron Removal by Electrocoagulation Using Full Factorial Design
AUTHORS:
Khaoula Missaoui, Wided Bouguerra, Chiraz Hannachi, Béchir Hamrouni
KEYWORDS:
Boron Removal; Electrocoagulation; Full Factorial Design
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.5 No.9,
September
27,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Saline waters treatment has become increasingly important for drinking
water supply in a greater part of the world. However, some serious limitations
had recently been discovered during water treatment, among them the boron problem
seems to have a critical meaning. According to the WHO regulations (2011), the
boron concentration should be reduced to less than 2.4 mg/L for
drinking water. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of
electrocoagulation (EC) as a pretreatment process to remove boron from saline
waters. To optimize the experimental conditions of boron removal, the effects
of some parameters were studied such as inter-electrode distance (die), electrode connection
mode, (S/V) ratio, pHi and
initial conductivity of the solution (σi). Subsequently, an experimental design methodology was implemented
to evaluate statistically the most significant operating parameters. The
effects of current density, EC time and initial boron concentration and their
mutual interaction were investigated using 23 full factorial design.
At optimal conditions, boron removal from synthetic aqueous solutions
containing initial boron concentrations of 5 and 50 mg/L reached 81% and 79%,
respectively. Applied to boron removal from seawater samples, EC reduces boron
concentration to less to 2.4 mg/L with excessive energy consumption under
optimal parameters.