Treatment of personal care product wastewater for reuse by integrated electrocoagulation and membrane filtration processes

Abstract

In this scientific paper, the treatment performance of integrated electrocoagulation and membrane filtration process was investigated for the treatment of personal care product wastewater via responce surface methodology (RSM). The effect of electrode material (iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), stainless steel (SS), titanium (Ti), and graphite (Gr)), current density (50-150 A/m(2)), initial pH (4-10), and retention time (120-240 min) on chemical oxygen demand (COD), surfactant, oil-grease and microplastic removal was investigated. The SS cathode displayed the highest removal efficiency. RSM was employed to adjust the operating parameters: 50 A/m2 of current density, pH = 4, and 180 min of electrolysis reaction time, where the highest COD removal efficiency was 89.6%, surfactant elimination reached 99.4%, and oil-grease reduction was 99.3% acquired with the SS electrode pairs. The EC pretreated wastewater was passed through different membrane systems: ultrafiltration (UP150), nano filtration (NF270 and NF90), and reverse osmosis (BW30 and SW30). The utilization of SW30 membrane has enhanced COD removal efficiency and reached 99.18% and each of surfactant, oil-grease, and microplastic removal efficiencies were enhanced as well. The ultimate outcomes displayed the significant ability of the studied combined processes to treat efficiently the tested wastewater and enhanced subsequently its final quality.